February 2026

This month we share our most recent Annual Report, welcome a new team member, focus on Lent and look for volunteers to join our new Community Garden project.

Stories of Hope

Dear Supporter,

Many of us love a good story. As Beth, our Food Bank Development Coordinator reflects in this month's blog, stories have a real power - both those we hear and those we tell.

Through our work, we hear stories each day. Many are genuinely heart-warming, some are truly heart-breaking. In the lives of our guests, the work our volunteers do and you generously support, becomes a small part of their story.

Below we encourage you to look at our latest Annual Report - the story of what Hope Nottingham has achieved in the year July 2024 -June 2025 - and we want to say thank you for playing your part in this story of Hope.

“To be a person is to have a story to tell.”

 Isak Dinesen

Our latest Annual Report

We are pleased to be able to share with you our latest Annual Report - covering the 12 months from July 2024 until June 2025.

There's a lot in it - but we're very unapologetic about its length! It's a record of just how much our dedicated volunteers, with your support have achieved. The numbers are incredible: 350 volunteers have given over 30,000 hours of volunteering time. Together we have supported people with emergency food more than 20,000 times, providing over 180,000 emergency meals. Over 1200 referrers at 346 different agencies have made nearly 9000 voucher referrals to our foodbanks which together have operated 1352 food bank sessions over the year. And that's without mentioning friendship activities, community meals, allotment, advice provision, job clubs, literacy and ESOL classes and the multitude of other activities that happen each week.

Yet as impressive as the numbers sound, it's the stories of real lives behind these numbers that really matters. Stories of hope such as the food bank guest who told us “I didn’t have hope before I came here and I do now because of you guys” or the Friendship Group member who said "This is the most important day in my week at the moment - You guys see me."

Equally it is the stories of hundreds of local people quietly giving back and working together to help others in their community. Some of our volunteer team know from experience the difference that such dedication can make: "I was a guest at Wollaton food bank. They were so warm and lovely that I felt like a 'family connection', I went away feeling like I wanted to be a part of that. I signed up with Hope and have been volunteering at the Chilwell food bank, where I feel that same family-like atmosphere, its clear that, that feeling runs through". This is very much our volunteers' story too and we cannot stress how much we appreciate each and every contribution they have made.

You can read these and so many more "Stories of Hope" in the report. We hope you are as encouraged by it as we are - and that together we can continue meeting our vision to "inspire and grow communities of Hope throughout Nottingham".

Welcome to Ella!

We are really excited to welcome Ella Sims, the newest member of the Hope Nottingham team, who joins us as a Community Activities & Volunteer Coordinator. Ella brings a background in art and is currently training in Naturopathic Health Coaching. With a passion for nature, wellbeing, and connection to the earth, Ella will lead the development of Hope House’s Community Garden (read more below) while also supporting the progression of our allotment activities, the Hope House community meal and our friendship groups.

You can read more about our team, including our incredible volunteers and Board of Trustees on our website here.

Growing Community at Hope House

We have long been aware that the grounds surrounding our hub at Hope House in Beeston have huge potential. We are really excited to begin on a new Community Garden project to transform this underused space into a resource that will increase biodiversity and nature as well as providing a vibrant community space for local people to use and enjoy.

We know that community gardens can have huge benefits as communal spaces, promoting positive mental health, encouraging people to spend time outdoors and meeting other people, as well as benefiting wildlife and sustainability.

Overseen by Ella, our new Community Activities & Volunteer Coordinator, we are now looking to build a team of enthusiastic and passionate volunteers to meet on Saturday mornings who can turn this exciting vision into a reality!

If you want to get involved in transforming this space into a real community resource, we'd love to hear from you. Gardening knowledge is helpful but certainly not essential - enthusiasm is definitely more important!

Reflecting on the season of Lent

The season of Lent - the lead up to Easter, is for many of us a time for reflection and prayer. Traditionally, many people fast or give up certain luxuries for the period, echoing Jesus' time spent in the wilderness. 

Whether or not you are in a position to give anything up for Lent, we invite you to use this season to pray with us for the work we do, the volunteers who enable it and the people and communities that we serve. There are some suggestions for prayer below and Lauren Bailey, our Chaplain explains more about our Lent Prayer Challenge in this short video:

Prayer suggestions:

• Pray for our guests, volunteers and staff - for their wellbeing, comfort and strength, that they may know God's love and provision.
• Pray for God's provision and for all those who support us - for continued donations to sustain the work of our food banks and hubs across Nottingham.
• Pray for the local communities we serve - that people feel safe, welcome and experience God's warmth and love through being part of these communities of Hope.
• Pray thanks for the continued generosity, kindness and dedication that enables our communities to grow and flourish.
• Pray the following blessing over our foodbanks and activities:

 "And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work." 2 Corinthians 9:8

We are also running a series of Lent reflections entitled "Closer" at our Carlton Community Hub. Beginning on Tuesday 17th March and running on Tuesdays and Fridays, sessions will explore Easter themes through prayer and a short reflection. We'd be delighted to welcome you to some or all of the sessions. For more details, do get in touch.

Finally, if you feel prompted to make a donation this Lent, why not take part in our 40 for 40 appeal? By donating 40p for each of the 40 days of Lent, or £40 total, you will help support our work across Nottingham.

Find an old jam jar and start collecting, then at the end of Lent, bank the money and make your donation online here.

And remember, if you are able to Gift Aid your donation, it is worth 25% more. Please do complete the Gift Aid declaration when completing your online donation.

Christian Community Hub Movement

Gathering

In November, we were delighted to attend the launch event of the Christian Community Hub Movement - a UK wide network of Christian Community Hubs set up by our Founder and former Director, Nigel Adams. The Christian Community Hub Movement aims to encourage, support and connect churches and Christian charities across the UK, as they bless their local communities in many different ways.

We are really excited to welcome Nigel back to Hope House on the afternoon of Wednesday 4th March as we host the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Network Gathering, bringing together churches and Christian charities from across our local region to share stories, encouragement and support as we look to serve those in our local communities. It promises to be a great time together. If you want to find out more about the movement, you can find lots of information on the Christian Community Hub Movement website or you can contact Nigel direct here to attend.

Kintsugi Hope Wellbeing Group coming to Hope House in Beeston

Following on from the success of the Kintsugi Hope Wellbeing Group that met at our Carlton Community Hub, we are looking forward to running an 8 week Kintsugi Hope Wellbeing Group at our Beeston Hub at Hope House beginning on Wednesday 11th March.

Named after the Japanese technique of repairing broken pottery with seams of gold, Kintsugi looks to discover treasure in life's scars, focusing on a different wellbeing topic each week using videos and small group discussion.

Attendees at our last group shared:

"I would like to say thank you to you and everyone who put together the Kintsugi course. It was a lovely journey through a variety of emotions . The course was beautifully put together and it was so engaging and thought provoking."

"This is a really safe space to share and I wouldn’t do that unless it was safe and you have done that, you have made it that."

Places are limited, so please do sign up using the QR code above or accessing our online form here.

Sharing best practice and support locally

We have long understood that providing 'more than food' is key to helping local people out of crisis and into hope. As part of our CEO Dominique Scott's role on the Steering Group of the Nottingham City Sustainable Food Partnership, and as an output on research on avoiding food bank dependency, we are also supporting development of a new Community Food Hubs Practice Network. We are pleased to share an invitation to other food projects to get involved at its launch workshop, especially as our very own Founder and former Director Nigel Adams is one of the guest speakers:

We are launching the network at an inaugural workshop on 23^rd March from 9:30am to 2:00pm, hosted by Tiger Community Enterprise CIC, All Souls Community Centre (Ilkeston Rd, Nottingham NG7 3HF).

Purpose: To establish a peer network for mutual support, exchange and development of best practice across food banks, pantries, social eating and other food relief projects - who offer or have an ambition to offer ‘more-than-food’ support services.

Agenda: Guest speakers from other UK cities who operate food hub networks; information on local and national funding opportunities; peer-to-peer discussions to unpack common and diverging approaches, challenges and visions; a tour of the Tiger Community Enterprise hub; and a deep listening exercise to encourage peer-to-peer conversations outside of the workshop. Details will be confirmed and circulated closer to the date to registered participants. We are also planning a follow-up workshop in June 2026.

Registration: To register for the network and launch event on 23^rd March, please complete the following form

Background: The new network will support the Nottingham City Sustainable Food Partnership’s mission to tackle food insecurity and poverty in the city by promoting a ‘more-than-food’ services approach which sees food as a hook to engaging people. The project stems from a recent research project on repeat food bank use across Nottingham (Shining the Light on Repeat Food Bank Use in Nottingham).

Founders: The following organisations are involved in leading and helping to launch the network: Nottingham Trent University, University of Nottingham, the Nottingham City Council, the Nottingham Financial Resilience Partnership, Hope Nottingham and Himmah.

Contact information: If you have any questions about the workshop, this network project or the Nottingham City Sustainable Food Partnership, please contact eva.zemandl@ntu.ac.uk

We very much look forward to your interest and participation in the network and to seeing you at the launch on 23^rd March.

Have you signed up yet? Help us raise more with Easyfundraising

Just a reminder to sign up with easyfundraising if you haven't already. Supporters who signed up in the last month have already raised over £40!

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Final thoughts...

This months reflection comes from our Development Coordinator Beth Buckley who reflects on the power of stories. You can read her reflection here.

Hope Nottingham | 0303 040 1110 | www.hope-nottingham.org.uk