Impact — Alternative Advent: The Season of Giving

Christmas With Impact

If you’re like us, the festive period is a time for celebration, family, and giving back. We often find ourselves wondering what we can do to help others. Thankfully there are a multitude of options available right at your doorstep. Around Christmas, food, shelter and warmth are the necessities that individuals and families seek the most. Yet, amid the Cost of Living Crisis, more and more families across the UK are struggling to afford the former, with almost a third of a million families being forced to turn to food banks in the last 12 months for the first time. Food poverty is a very real, yet relatively invisible issue if it isn’t in your direct experience.

Having moved to our new home in Loughborough Junction, and thus a new borough in Lambeth, we wanted to partner with local organisations this year for our festive coffee and Alternative Advent.  

What is Alternative Advent?

We have run our Alternative Advent for the last 3 years, previously supporting Southwark Food Bank, part of the Trussell Trust network. In a nutshell, our Alternative Advent is a collaborative campaign that joins the forces of our customers, partners and ourselves to give back to those who need it the most. The campaign runs throughout December and involves putting together parcels of food and essentials, however big or small. These will then be collected, stored and distributed across individuals and families who need them most through our campaign partner.  

Our 2023 Advent campaign is a little different this year. As we are spending our first Christmas at our new roastery in Lambeth, it only felt right we teamed up with a neighbouring organisation. This year we are partnering with Lambeth Larder, a social enterprise that helps connect local people in financial need to emergency food and other services like advice, debt, and mental health support. As well as online resources, Lambeth Larder also provides a free physical directory so that individuals can find the local services they need. As they are a cornerstone in the borough, we knew they would be the perfect partner to connect us to local groups to ensure that our parcels reach the people who benefit most. 

This year, our parcels will go to groups including Carers’ Hub Lambeth, Indo-American Refugee & Migrant Organisation, Kata Kata Food Pantry, Refugee Community Kitchen, Refuge Women’s Refugees, and Share Community Kitchen. 

How to get involved: 

1. Read through our Alternative Advent food and essentials list above
2. Put together a box, make sure it’s securely sealed 
3. If you are local, drop your box to our Roastery:
   Old Spike Roastery, Unit 1, LJ Works, 7 Gastineau Yard, London, SW9 7FA
   We are only able to accept donations between 9am-5pm at our Roastery. We will have some Saturday slots available at our Peckham Cafe that we will share via Instagram. 
4. If you aren’t able to drop it off in person, we are providing DPD labels to deliver to our roastery (address above). Please email us at hello@oldspikeroastery.com to receive your delivery label.  
5. The last date for delivery will be Monday 12th December. The last date for drop-offs will be Friday 15th December. We will then deliver the parcels to Lambeth Larder to distribute between local service providers. 

Last year we were able to provide over 40 parcels. With your help and support, we know we can smash this number out of the park. Keep your eyes on our Instagram and sign up to our newsletter for campaign updates.