Barn Croft Together
At Barn Croft we have a wonderful sense of community and support amongst our children, staff and families. As we are all aware, the cost of living crisis is even more challenging now and we want to continue to support those families in our community who are facing hardship. Times are tough, but we are pulling together.
Household essentials
We provide regular bags of household essentials for families who are struggling with the cost of living. If you are interested in receiving a bag, please contact the school office or email school@barncroft.waltham.sch.uk. All requests are treated confidentially. These bags are funded by donations from parents, members of the local community and some charitable donations. If you are able to support other families within our Barn Croft community, it would be greatly appreciated. All donations will be processed through ParentMail where you will be able to go via payments to shop to be able to make a donation.
School Uniform Swap
School uniforms are expensive – and kids grow out of them quickly. Outside the school office is a clothes rail packed with second-hand school uniform. Please take anything you need. If your child has grown out of their uniform, please consider donating it to the School Uniform Swap – simply hang it on the clothes rail.
Shopping Vouchers
When we can, depending on funds available, we provide additional support to families struggling financially with supermarket food vouchers to help over school holidays. These are funded by donations from parents, members of the local community and some charitable donations. If you are able to support other families within our Barn Croft community, it would be greatly appreciated. All donations will be processed through Parentmail where you will be able to ‘purchase’ your chosen donation amount in the shop area of the site/app.
Food banks in the community
There are several food banks in Walthamstow that can provide help with food. Some require referrals while others are for anyone who turns up.
Eat or Heat offers emergency food aid which can be collected once a week for four weeks. You will need to be referred by someone (full list here). Eat or Heat also accept referrals from schools so please contact Miss Kelly school@barncroft.waltham.sch.uk if you need support.
The Rukhsana Khan Foundation runs a food bank on Saturday mornings at the William Morris Community Centre, 6-8 Greenleaf Road between 10am and 12pm. You will need to bring proof of benefit and ID, or you can be referred by school so please contact Miss Kelly school@barncroft.waltham.sch.uk if you need support.
Food Cycle Walthamstow offers a free hot meal on Thursday evenings at 6.30pm at St Mary’s Welcome Centre, Church End, Walthamstow, E17 9RH. There is no need to book, you can just turn up.
Thank You
None of this support provided would be possible without the generous financial donations from parents, members of the local community and local charities – we would like to thank everyone who has managed to donate. We also rely heavily on support from parents to organise purchasing, sorting and packaging bags as well as the admin team for managing requests, finances and contacting families.
All donations will be processed through ParentMail where you will be able to go via payments to shop to be able to make a donation.
A huge ‘thank you’ to everyone involved. If you would have time to offer to support the delivery of our programme, please contact school@barncroft.waltham.sch.uk or speak to Miss Kelly or a member of the school office team.
Examples of our work so far:
-Lockdown food bags and voucher support to 40+ families, weekly
-Barn Croft Share Shop for household essentials opened, run by parents twice weekly
-Barn Croft Together developed with school and parents as a wider and more regular support network
-Barn Croft Together household bags, half termly, supporting in excess of 20 families regularly
-Barn Croft Together voucher support – supermarket food vouchers for the Christmas Holidays
-Household appliances – support to purchase emergency household appliances and/or furnature as needed (school@barncroft.waltham.sch.uk if you need support with similar)
All donations will be processed through ParentMail where you will be able to go via payments to shop to be able to make a donation.