BY GEORGE BINGHAM-DAVIS Faith Lives
S6 ARISE!
Foodbank: FAITH IN ACTION by Finley Hammatt
S6 Foodbank has been bringing people together throughout its 10-year history. From its roots in 2011, in the wake of a financial crisis and ensuing austerity, S6 Foodbank now has eleven locations across the city, and it is continuing to expand. For founder Chris Hardy and manager Jayne Franklin, though, the foodbank is about more than feeding the hungry: it’s about faith in action. We spoke to Chris and Jayne about the role that their faith plays in their service to the community.
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“The entire organisation was divinely inspired,” reflects Chris. Within a week of becoming a Christian - back in 1999 - Chris heard God talk to him, telling him to “feed the city”. At first he resisted, remembering thinking, “This sounds right boring!” Looking back, however, Chris says, “God was taking me on a journey through what I needed to go through. And am still going through… to get ready really for what’s coming.” For Chris this involved dealing with his violent past and anger issues with the help of Christ, his
wife, and a counsellor. “Still, every day, I have to make a decision about which Chris I want to be.” Eventually Chris did accept God’s call to feed the city. As a member of St Thomas’ Church, Philadelphia, Chris was struck by the way that St Thomas’ responded to the needs of the community through its social programmes. Initially, Chris was involved in one of the Restore projects run through the church. “I was meeting people who were coming in saying that they were hungry, that they needed food, so I
