FOOD

Since the start of 2020 our food depot has delivered thousands of food parcels to people in need across Lincoln and surrounding areas. In particular, we have built strong relationships with several local schools and aim to regularly provide support for their most vulnerable families. We rely heavily on donations from the church congregation as well as local charities and businesses to ensure that each food parcel not only includes essential items but also fruit, vegetables and tasty treats!

We no longer offer deliveries of food parcels, however if you are in need we recommend you visit our Love Your Neighbour cafe on Thursday mornings from 10.30am to 1pm at the Salthouse and we will do our best to put something together for you. Send us an email to let us know to expect you.

MONEY cOACHING

In order to support our congregation and local community in matters of money management and to help prevent issues arising from debt, we run Money Coaching by Christians Against Poverty multiple times throughout the year, including courses for students and young people. Our courses are available both in person and online, and are completely free. With the cost of living on the rise, we want to help equip you with the skills you need to create a robust budget and know how to stick to it, using the revolutionary CAP Money System. 

This course will help anyone to get more in control of their finances, so you can save, give and prevent debt, and is devised by the award winning debt counselling charity, Christians Against Poverty. To find out more, send us an email.

MENTAL HEALTH

As part of a cross city initiative, we run the Night Light Cafe on Saturday nights from 7-10pm at the Salthouse. The cafe is designed to be a safe space where people can come if they are finding life difficult. We have a team of trained volunteers at each cafe who will not only serve refreshments, but also chat with the guests and signpost them towards other support available in the city. There are books on hand to read, as well as cards, jigsaws and games too. If you know someone who might benefit from the cafe, direct them towards the Facebook page @NightLightCafeLincoln or call 0300 011 1200.

Kintsugi Hope Wellbeing Groups

'Kintsugi’ is a Japanese technique for repairing pottery with seams of gold. It repairs the brokenness in a way that makes the object more beautiful, and even more unique, than it was prior to being broken. Instead of hiding the scars, it makes a feature of them. We partner with Kintsugi Hope to run wellbeing groups to provide a safe and supportive space for people who feel or have felt overwhelmed, providing tools for self-management in a facilitated peer mentoring style setting. Over the course of 8 weeks, there are group and individual activities on topics such as disappointment, loss, anxiety and anger to help each participant grow towards a more resilient and hopeful future. Click here for more details and for dates of upcoming groups.

CONNECT

On Thursday mornings from 10.30am to 1pm we open up the Salthouse for our Love Your Neighbour Cafe, a space where we welcome our local community and those we serve through Love Your Neighbour to come for free coffee, cake and if needed a food parcel. Plus there’s always a baked potato lunch available for just £1, bargain! It’s also a great place to get connected in with other things going on in the life of the church. Come along and see for yourself!

REFUGEES

Welcome Churches

In order to support refugees arriving in the UK, we partner with national charity Welcome Churches. We are part of the Welcome Network and are ready to welcome refugees into our church and community. With the recent difficulties in Afghanistan and the war in the Ukraine, we are keen to be able to support any recently arrived refugees with any practical help they might need, so if you know of anyone who would benefit from a helping hand as they get accustomed to living in the UK let us know.

LOVE CHRISTMAS

Love Christmas is a national initiative and has a vision to draw people together by sharing Bags of Kindness with those around them; to strengthen personal connections in communities across the UK and let people know that they are not alone.

Over the past 3 years, Love Christmas has reached well over 1 million people with Bags of Kindness, and at St Swithin’s we have played our part delivering over 1,500 bags and gifts to people in need across Lincoln. We are already working towards Love Christmas 2024 and would love you to get involved, whether it be through giving financially or helping practically. Contact us to find out more.

GIVE HELP

With all that we’re up to through Love Your Neighbour, we’d love you to consider getting involved and joining the team. There is so much we want to do and so many areas that we want to expand into in order to help those in our local community, but we can’t do it without every person playing their part and getting stuck in! Email us to express your interest in helping out.

Financially

We can’t meet the ever increasing needs of our community without the generous contributions of our church family and other partners across the city. To give to the work of Love Your Neighbour to help see lives and communities transformed, simply click here.

Practically

Our food depot is in constant need of items to fill the food parcels for the most vulnerable people in our community, so we always welcome food donations into the Salthouse. Feel free to pop in with your donations and deposit them in the red bin. If you’re feeling extra creative, why not organise a Foodbank Friday at your local school or sports club and encourage friends and colleagues to chip in too! 

Get Help

If you are in need of support, simply email us and we will be in touch to see how we can help.