You know a film has left a lasting impact when you’re sobbing all the way home on the 55.
If you haven’t seen I, Daniel Blake yet, I urge you too. As difficult as it is to watch, it’s a powerful 100 minutes that I just can’t stop thinking about.
The first scene to start me off was when single mother of two, Katie, visits a foodbank. While the kids are being given squash by a kind volunteer, she is driven to eat straight from a can out of sheer hunger. She’d been going without food in order to ensure her kids were being fed. This desperately raw, emotive scene was the first of many to leave me with tears streaming down my face.
When the last devastating scene finished, I vowed I had to do something. I’m sure many people have left the cinema feeling the same way but it’s important we don’t just slip back into our own realities and forget how this film made us feel. If we were all to act on it, just imagine what could be done.
There’s nothing that I can really write that hasn’t already been written more eloquently by someone already. Try this brilliant piece by Jack Monroe here.
You might have a little money you could spare or no money at all but a little time. Both are equally important as it happens.
If you’re short of time why not put a weekly/fortnightly/monthly reminder in your phone/diary to donate to your local foodbank. Why not make it the day after payday?
After a quick google search I discovered a number of foodbanks on my doorstep in Hackney who are welcoming donations. Find your local foodbank.
A typical food parcel includes:
- Cereal
- Soup
- Pasta
- Rice
- Pasta sauce
- Beans
- Tinned meat
- Tinned vegetables
- Tea/coffee
- Tinned fruit
- Biscuits.
At the moment Hackney Foodbank is desperately in need of the following items:
- TINNED FRUIT (400GMS)
- UHT JUICE (1 LITRE)
- CUSTARD (400GMS)
- UHT MILK (1 LITRE)
- INSTANT COFFEE (100GMS)
- JARS OF CURRY SAUCE OR PASTA SAUCE
- SUGAR (500GMS)
- WASHING POWDER, GEL OR TABLETS
- RICE (500GMS OR 1KG BAGS ONLY)
- INSTANT SOUP SACHETS
- INSTANT MASHED POTATO
- TINNED VEGETABLES (400GMS)
- TINNED CORNED BEEF OR CHICKEN
They have plenty of:
- BEANS
- PASTA
- TINNED SOUP
- CEREAL
- SWEET BISCUITS
- TEA
We’ll be dropping off our donations this weekend to the big Tesco Extra on Morning Lane – a stone’s throw from the cinema. You’ll find the collection point at the front of the store.
If you’ve got time to spare instead, you can volunteer anything from a few hours to two days a week. Vital roles include drivers, warehouse volunteers, foodbank helpers, they are even looking for a web editor!
Or simply make a donation here.
However you want to get involved, don’t forget that feeling you left the cinema with. It’s powerful and will make a difference if you act on it.
