OMA FEB 2025 Updates
Hi OMA community!
An absolutely PACKED newsletter full of exciting updates for you - it's been a busy, busy month! These include (but are not limited to) - surprise pigeons, bus makeovers, new websites and many, many parcels delivered.
Enjoy the read, and we look forward to seeing you in the hall (and beyond)!
1000 PEOPLE HELPED LAST MONTH
In January OMA provided food to over 1000 unique local people, a high we haven't seen in over two years! This took the form of 652 regular parcels and 260 Emergency parcels.
This is, of course in credit to all the amazing hard work everyone has been putting in lately, allowing us to increase our capacity and make a difference in the support we offer. However, this also reflects a growing problem - that food insecurity, inequality and cost of living are continually growing in Oxford and beyond. Every one of our parcels delivers represents a success of a community coming together in support and solidarity, but also represents a similtaneously failure of our economic, political and governmental systems - which is why it's so crucial we continue building community-based change.
ADDING NEW REGULAR/WEEKLY RECIPIENTS
For the first time in several years, we finally have been able to add new emergency parcel recipients to our weekly regular list! As others have left, and spots have opened up, we finally feel we have the capacity to offer weekly support to more more people.
Looking at those who had requested the most over 2024, and were currently requesting the most they could (every ten days) we invited 29 households to join the weekly list - totalling 117 individuals that we'll now be helping regularly and reliably - hopefully providing not just important food support, but peace of mind and stability.
We're waiting a week or two to ensure we can handle this increased capacity, before hopefully inviting another ~15 households to join the regular list!
Volunteer Spotlight
The contributions from everyone this month have been immense, and trult impressive - which is why we have 4 volunteers in our volunteer spotlight this month!
Our first two are Andie and Chris - who have been absolute stars with their van deliveries and pickups, and we're very grateful - Andie has been doing a multitude of food pickups and deliveries, sometimes multiple in a row. Chris, as well, has been a star with deliveries, taking on last-minute van drives at incredibly short notice and making sure everyone gets their food parcels.
If you're interested in helping out with food deliveries or pickups, we're absolutely in need for some more drivers right now! We're especially eager for anyone interested/willing to learn how to drive the van to come forward to help with pickups/big deliveries. If you're interested in stepping up, send a message on whatsapp or email at volunteering@oxfordmutualaid.org
The remaining two are David and Joe - you can see some of the awesome stuff they've been up to below as this section is long enough already <3
News
We're very happy to have received an amazing 1000 meals from the Country Food Trust! This was organised thanks to David, who arranged this fantastic donation - massive thanks to him!
As many of you will know, we are constantly low/running out of microwave and kettle items (pot noodles, bagged rice, etc). These items are particularly crucial in supporting people without adequate cooking facilities - this particularly tends to be those in temporary accommodation - generally groups that are extremely vulnerable and in dire need of support!
Thanks to this donation, our microwave + kettle meal supplies should be sustained for around a year, with the hearty, nutritious and delicious meals you can see above - i'm sure we can all agree they look a lot better than a pot noodle!
Concerts, Geology & Baking - So Much Student Fundraising!
There's been an amazing, amazing amount of fundraising across different student societies for OMA this term. Above is the Oxford Uni Geology Society's craft night, which had a super impressive turnout of people raising money to support our work (See Above).
Vols Jamie and Gabriel also attended the Oxford University Orchestra's Concert in the Sheldonian last week, where attendees were encouraged to donate to OUO and raised £50!
The OU PakSoc Arranged a 'Dress as Your Fav Bollywood Character' Nighy, the OU Women of Colour Soc organised a Galentines Cookie Decorating, Oxford Textiles Soc organised a craft night and the Cuntry Living Zine has organised a cocktail + mocktails fundraising night! Thank you to all who helped arrange these efforts (apologies for any we missed) - there are also events from the October Club, OU Asia-Pacific Soc, OU FemSoc, OU ArabSoc and Brookes Baking Soc upcoming!
All these amazing societies have helped fundraise and encourage their members to volunteer with us as well - we're super excited to have many, many new volunteers on board from these efforts from everyone :).
Leaving Twitter & Joining Bluesky!
You may have seen, earlier this month that we made the decision to leave Twitter/X and move to Bluesky!
In short, we feel the platform is no longer is a space that OMA feels is safe, supportive or worthwhile to invest our time and effort as organisers into. With Elon Musk continuing to spread his racist,-right politics, Twitter/X has been crafted into a space that actively promotes these ideologies - which we as an organisation actively stand and work against.
Of course, Twitter once was a space we used to organise the Oxford community, particularly back when we were founded in 2020. It is no longer a space for community, but rather a platform that furthers division and hate - and we do not see a place for ourselves on such a platform.
Big thanks to Jo, who ran the Twitter tirelessly for several years and is now doing a fantastic job running the bluesky + helping us switch over.
You can follow us there on the link below!
Help Needed
HELP FIX FREDDIE THE FREEZER
As you may have seen, our large (and expensive) industrial freezer, Freddie, has broken down. Our freezers are vital in enabling us to store surplus reliably, and with Freddie gone we've taken a major hit to our storage capacity.
So if you, or anyone you know is able to help with fixing this pro-bono, please get in touch! Every place we have asked about fixing this has given us a quote of several hundred pounds, which as an org we clearly cannot afford. If anyone is able to help free of charge (or even for a reduced rate), it would be an absolute lifesaver - so please get in contact via whatsapp or at coordinators@oxfordmutualaid.org
We’re Hiring!
We're also on the lookout for a new van driver! Please see the advert below if interested and pass this along to anyone who might be interested. Apply via email at jobs@oxfordmutualaid.org