Volunteering in the St Thomas food bank
Brenna, a Masters student, writes about her volunteering at St Thomas food bank.
My 3 years at Swansea I’d never spent much time in the St Thomas community. I’d only ever visited to see Swansea from Kilvay Hill. But to my surprise there’s actually a massive community at St Thomas and much of that is centred around the church. Since the start of December, I’ve been volunteering at the community food bank and church. There I’ve met Mark and Kylie, who are one of the power couple of the Church moved to Swansea in April. Mark the new student paster of the St Thomas Church, where Rev Steve and the team have spent so much time and energy renovating the church into a hub for the community. Which we hope to be open soon following the end of lockdown, hopefully sooner rather than later.
Before the grand opening of the new church, I’ve been helping at the local food bank just next door to the church. By packing over 500 goodie bags for families on Christmas day, arranging food donations into food parcels and making banana bread. Each day 50 food parcels are made and sent out to families or individuals. But not only do the volunteers help every week but on Christmas day, a team of volunteers had over 80 Christmas meals sent to people alone on Christmas. We hoped to have a gathering of all those alone at Christmas but with restrictions, this wasn’t possible.
Mark and Kylie have been building a community of students to get involved with volunteering at the food bank. But they’ve also made a support system for students and want to get more students engaging with each other, currently these are zoom quizzes and Instagram stories. But they have big plans to grow the student community within the church, not only with volunteering but social nights, 5-a-side football and fish and chip dinner dates.
Discovery has been providing a helping hand at St Thomas and the community, from students volunteering at Christmas meals to raising funds for the St Thomas Christmas present appeals. Rev Steve was one of the Discovery Trustee’s and helped get more students involved with St Thomas. Discovery has lots of volunteering opportunities available that help people in lots of different, all students are welcome to get involved in any way they can, there’s any opportunity for everyone!
Anyone wanting to get involved on the volunteering side of things the volunteering team at the food bank are some of most inspiring people you’ll meet. And to students who just want another escape during these uncertain times, the community around the St Thomas Church is nothing but happy and safe place.
Everyone is welcome with open arms at St Thomas!
Instagram: @sts.students
Facebook: @stsstudents
For more information on Discovery go to their website:
All the best and stay safe,
Brenna Roberts
St Thomas volunteer and student