Urgent request for foodbank supplies to see summer holidays out

Although many children may be dreading the end of the school holidays and enjoying the finale of their freedom, kids on free school meals are just looking forward to getting fed every lunchtime again.

At the beginning of the summer, the Trussel Trust, who help run thousands of foodbanks across the country, anticipated the demand to be its highest ever.

87,496 food parcels went to children in the UK during the summer holidays of 2018, which was an increase of 20% on the previous summer.

 

 

Christian MP Frank Field has called 2019 the ‘worst summer yet’ for child hunger and called on the government to set up a national scheme that feeds children in the breaks.

Christian foodbank worker Natalie Williams, who works in Hastings, told Premier: “That is what we’re seeing on the ground here. We just this week actually had to put out on Facebook for the first time some photos of our warehouses, empty shelves, with a bit of a desperate appeal for some food to come in.

“Our July was the biggest July we’ve had. We’ve been open for seven years and it’s gone up by about 25% compared to last July and we’re seeing more and more people coming in.

“To be honest with us that’s across the board, not just in the summer, but like I said, we’ve just seen this spike in July.”

She said last Friday they served 166 people in a two hour session. 

Ms Williams explained how she would like…

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Overcomer Expanding into 100 Additional Theaters This Weekend

Overcomer Expanding into 100 Additional Theaters This Weekend



One week after surpassing most prognostications, the faith-based film Overcomer is expanding.


Overcomer (PG) will open in 100 additional theaters this weekend, according to Provident Films, one of the companies behind the movie. Overcomer opened in 1,723 theaters last weekend and grossed $8.1 million to finish third behind Angel Has Fallen and Good Boys, and ahead of Hobbs & Shaw and The Lion King. 


Its per-theater average ($4,728) ranked second among films in the Top 20. It also earned an A+ CinemaScore grade from moviegoers and a 98 percent audience score at Rotten Tomatoes. 


Kimber Myers, a film critic for The Los Angeles Times, gave Overcomer a positive score and said the movie has “an emotionally effective conclusion that might persuade even the cynics to its cause.”


The film tells the story of a high school basketball coach who grows dejected when a town tragedy forces his best players to move elsewhere – spoiling what he thought would be a state championship-contending season. His situation gets worse when he is told to coach a sport he hates: cross country.  


It was made by Alex and Stephen Kendrick, the same filmmakers behind War Room, Courageous, Fireproof and Facing the Giants. 


The film’s poster asks moviegoers to consider: What do you allow to define you? The movie is based on Ephesians 1-2 and examines what it means to have an…

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Churches urged to bring their ‘social identity’ to toxic online platforms

It comes after research from The Royal Society for Public Health revealed how social media makes people feel.

The study showed content that triggers negative memories, the fear of missing out and pressures from celebrities and influencers were among the most toxic.

People ranked memes, access to learning resources, and understanding diverse cultures as among the most meaningful.

 

 

The Scroll Free September campaign is encouraging the public to take a break from their social media accounts for the month of September in a bid to build more healthy relationships with online platforms.

Rev Dr Peter Phillips is the Director of CODEC Research Centre for Digital Theology of St John’s College.

Speaking to Premier News Hour he stressed the importance of maintaining a healthy balance when it comes to life online:

“This ‘always on’ society means that we’re always under social pressure and if some of that goes wrong with people being nasty then that can have a backwash into your social life.

“Completely coming off social media could be detrimental to your social life as well because that’s where you may meet people. That’s where, if you’re house bound, you may connect with people and so we don’t want to increase people’s anxiety by them going completely cold turkey, it’s about getting a balance.”

Rev Phillips went on to say that although limiting screen time can be a…

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Dinner Church Movement Sets the Table for Food, Faith and Friendships

Dinner Church Movement Sets the Table for Food, Faith and Friendships



CHICAGO (RNS) — On a near-perfect late summer evening, about a dozen people gathered on a picnic blanket in Chicago’s Palmer Square Park, spread between kids playing on playground equipment and young adults throwing a Frisbee disc on the lawn.


Accompanied by the crunch of joggers’ footsteps on the gravel path circling the narrow strip of green in the city’s trendy Logan Square neighborhood and the rumbling of a passing El train, one of the picnickers took a piece of pita bread and broke it in half.


“This is our body,” he said, passing it to the person sitting next to him. Each person repeated the gesture before digging into a spread of food from a nearby restaurant.


This gathering wasn’t just another group of friends soaking up the last days of summer outside.


It was church.


Root & Branch Church calls this service the Welcome Table. It’s part of a growing trend of dinner churches popping up across the country in churches in a number of denominations, conservative and progressive, urban and rural and everything in between.


The dinner church movement sees gathering together for a meal itself as worship, rather than just another church potluck after worship.


“It’s also really important to recognize that dinner churches are not a fundamentally new thing, this is not just like the latest cool iteration of church, and that eating together has…

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