## **LEWCAS Annual Report 2024** Welcome to everyone on this lovely afternoon. It's great to see you making the effort to show us your support. Before reviewing the financial year 23-24, we need to take a moment to remember our former Chair, Marion Parsons, who died on November 16th 2024. On March 1st 2025, we gathered together with others of Marion's family, colleagues and friends, to celebrate her life at St Saviour's Brockley. Marion gave many years and a lot of her time to LewCAS, ending up as our Chair. During the service we sang 'When I **was** needed a neighbour were you there? ' Marion absolutely there for all the people who came to LewCAS. Thank you to all our wonderful volunteers and friends who have helped LewCAS keep going over the last year, with help setting up and distributing the food and other supplies on a Tuesday, and collecting food and supplies from the Felix project in Deptford, shops, the market, friends, neighbours, churches, schools and other sources that we don't necessarily know about. Thank you especially to our regular donors of food and money through standing orders. Grants are wonderful, and we rejoice when we get them, but grants come and go, and they have time limits - so our faithful supporters are the bedrock of our work. 1 In 2023 LewCAS finances were verging on collapse from week to week, but we pulled through in the end with the help of all our donors. 2024 has been very different. A National Lottery grant of £10,000 which arrived in January has underpinned our finances. Sue has put this money in a savings account, so it brings in about £50 a month in interest. Although usually we spend just over £1000 a month on food, which means that the lottery grant has been spent now, regular donations of about £850 a month, and the occasional legacy have meant that we have been able to keep the savings account going. And let's not forget the value of food donations - we think they probably save us nigh on another £1000 a month. During the year the Home Office has moved people into Stay City in Deptford. There has been some change in the places people come from this year: At the end of the year covered by this report, we were helping ................ adults and ......... children, giving out about 45 boxes every week. Our client group comes mostly from Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Iran, Turkish Kurdistan, Afghanistan, India, Namibia and Iraq. 2 During 2024 the Labour Government took over. Their ambition was to tackle the backlog of cases at the Home Office, which has kept some of our clients waiting for outrageous lengths of time - in one case, for 20 years. It was too soon to tell whether this was working by the end of our financial year. As usual, at Christmas we prepared named bags of sweets and toiletries for the adults, and a display of toys and books for parents to choose from for their children. We also gave out wrapping paper so that families could give their children an experience comparable to what they would hear about from their friends at school. The display of toys was impressive, thanks to all our generous donors and volunteers, and even teenagers were provided for. We always work hard to ensure that the last people to choose gifts for their children have a reasonable choice - which means that inevitably there will be gifts left over. We don't let anything hang about unused however, but take them to places where other people in need will be grateful to have them. For example, this Christmas we donated a number of good children's books to the Jamestown Lighthouse Book Project which takes books to primary schools in Ghana. One of our colleagues at St Mary's visited some of the Primary Schools which received books, and has described how welcome they are. At Easter we prepared 66 bags of small Easter eggs and treats for the children, and offered larger eggs, and boxes of chocolate for each family to choose. We also offered half a dozen hen's eggs for each family. Everything was given out - there were none left over. During the year we were able to increase the amount of fresh fruit and vegetables that we get from the Felix Project in Deptford. This is a London wide project which collects items from Supermarkets, and distributes them to many food banks and other projects in the area. The results of the most recent annual Felix Project Impact Survey showed clearly how important this project is to the wellbeing of people in Lewisham. Three quarters of foodbanks and community kitchens in Lewisham reported that the numbers of people coming to them for help have been going up over the past year, and that people are coming for help more often. Almost two thirds of these projects said that they could not carry on without the free food provided by the Felix Project. In our case, nearly all our fresh vegetables and fruit come from there. Sometimes we receive more than we need of certain things, so we take them to St Peter's Church round the corner, where they open a food bank on Wednesdays. Anything which is starting to go off goes to compost. Nothing is wasted! We are really grateful not to be in as difficult a position as last year with regard to funds, but with our higher number of clients, with the price of food rising, and shortages in the shops, we cannot stop fund raising and grant hunting. Again, thank you to everybody for all your help! 4 **LewCAS ANNUAL ACCOUNTS Year ended 31 Oc** ## **INCOMING RESOURCES** |**INCOMING RESOURCES**|||| |---|---|---|---| ||UnrestrictedRestricted||**TOTAL**| ||Funds|Funds|**2023/24**| |**Voluntary Income**|£|£|£| |Standing Orders|7,740.96|0.00|**7,740.96**| |Individual Donations|1,000.00|0.00|**1,000.00**| |Church Donations|3,071.52|0.00|**3,071.52**| |Current A/c Interest|20.33|0.00|**20.33**| |Savings A/c Interest|72.66|0.00|**72.66**| ||11,905.47|0.00|**###**| |**Grant Funding**|||| |National Lottery|0.00|10,000.00|**###**| |Charities Trust|200.00|0.00|**200.00**| |Lewisham Local Small Grant|0.00|0.00|**0.00**| |LCRF Grant|0.00|900.00|**900.00**| |Co-op Supermarket Community Fund|2,070.86|0.00|**2,070.86**| |Lewisham Community Lottery|371.00|0.00|**371.00**| ||2,641.86|10,900.00|13,541.86| |**TOTAL INCOMING RESOURSES**|14,547.33|10,900.00|**###**| |**RESOURCES EXPENDED**|||| ||UnrestrictedRestricted||**TOTAL**| ||Funds|Funds|**2023/24**| ||**£**|**£**|**£**| |**Food**|3,888.23|7,794.05|**###**| |**Fares**|0.00|0.00|**0.00**| |**Admin**|||| |Bank Charges|60.00|0.00|**60.00**| |Public Liability Insurance|265.29|0.00|**265.29**| |Gifts|150.75|0.00|**150.75**| |Storage Boxes|0.00|0.00|**0.00**| |Computer Software|0.00|0.00|**0.00**| |**TOTAL RESOURSES EXPENDED**|4,364.27|7,794.05|**###**| |**STATEMENT OF FUNDS**|**( as at 31/10/2024 )**||£| |Balance b/fwd as at 1/11/2023|||2,439.54| |Add annual receipts|(see above)||25,447.33| ||||27,886.87| |Less annual expenses|( see above)||12,158.32| |Balance c/fwd as at 31/10/24|||**###**| |Transfer between accounts|||10,000.00| |CAF Current Account|||5,550.89| CAF Savings Account Cash in hand 10,072.66 105.00 **###** ## **LewCAS ANNUAL ACCOUNTS Year ended 31 Oc** |**Breakdown of Church Donatons**
Blackheath Soc of Friends
Bonhoefer German Church
Crofon Park Baptst
Grove Centre Church
St George's Church
St Hilda's - Crofon Park
St Mary's - Lewisham|225.00
684.35
600.00
305.45
800.00
175.00
281.72| |---|---| ||3,071.52| ## **Individual Donations** There were several donations from individuals throughout the year of varying amounts. ## Notice to the Accounts The accounts have been prepared on a receipts and payments basis and make no allowance for the considerable value of the gifts in kind of food made for the benefit of asylum seeking clients. We are grateful for the growing support we have received from local churches, street collections and the many individuals who now give regularly by standing order. We are particularly grateful to be the receipient of a grant from the National Lottery which amounted to £10,000 to be spent on culturally appropriate food and ASDA On-Line orders. This was very timely as we had an influx of new clients during the year which depleted our funds. I would also like to add my personal thanks to Rachel Allard for all her hard work with grant applications and doing the On-Line orders and fresh food Market shopping. We also express our thanks to St John's with Holy Trinity Church, Deptford for the free weekly use of their premises for our food distribution, storage and our bimonthly committee meetings. We continue to benefit from being a nominated charity of the Lewisham Community Lottery, and have been accepted as a charity by the Co-op for one year, with payment being split over two financial years. We continue to receive fresh fruit and veg from the Felix Project every week. It is my belief that these accounts conform to the requirements of the Charity Commission for smaller charities with income and expenditure within the relevant range. Unrestricted donations are those given for the support of the Charity's Objectives and may be used at the discretion of the Trustees in pursuit of such Objectives. Restricted funds are monies received from grants given for a specific purpose and can only be used for that purpose - e.g. Food or Travel Fares. ## Administration The LewCAS Trustees and other volunteers have received no payment for any of the considerable time and efforts provided over a difficult year due to increase in clientele using the service. I wish to thank everyone for their patience, help and support over the year. Sue Chapman Treasurer ## **ctober 2024** ## **TOTAL 2022/23** £ 6,980.00 4,148.83 2,393.28 9.27 0.00 13,531.38 0.00 397.50 3,000.00 1,850.00 0.00 627.00 5,874.50 19,405.88 **TOTAL 2022/23 £** 13,008.82 7,895.00 60.00 236.86 100.00 0.00 50.00 **21,350.68** ctober 2024 Independent Examiner's Report to the trustees of London Churches Refugee Fund. Charity Number: 1121108 On accounts for the year ended 31[st ] December 2023 ## Set out on the preceding page. I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity ("the Trust") for the year ended 31[st ] December 2023. Responsibilities and basis of report. As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 ("the Act") I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act. Independent examiner's statement. I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect: Accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or the accounts do not accord with the accounting records I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. Signed:20[th] March 2024 Michael John G 32 Elm Avenue, Upminster, Essex, RM14 2AY