Dear supporter of our campaign,

We are writing to update you on our progress and to ask you to keep pushing on our behalf to make sure everyone is informed about the awful situation that our families find themselves in.

We had a great meeting with Rokhsana Fiaz the Mayor of Newham and Jason Strelitz the head of the Newham Pubic Health team. 

They vowed to work on our three asks: 

1
Resources from national government to support families right now with food vouchers, community kitchens and – where possible – rings, hobs or microwaves in their rooms.

2
Resources released to local authority housing departments to ensure that no family has to live in a hotel without a kitchen for more than the 6 week legal limit.

3
To change legislation to ban the use of hotels with no kitchens to house families with children under five at all.

They admitted that putting in support (family support, community kitchens) on a local level is easier than addressing the underlying issue of the lack of available accommodation for local families who find themselves homeless - which necessitates a stay in a hotel instead. 

We did gain a promise to work together to take our  asks to the national body of public health and to the London Mayor's office to look at housing supply and regulation.

We are hopeful that - if we keep up the noise and the pressure  -we will continue to gain small wins on the way to real change. That is why we are having an online information session to hear from our families, from medical experts, from researchers about just how damaging living without cooking facilities is to the future of our children's lives.

The session - on May 21st - will be run by London's Child Poverty Network @4in10. Please do sign up here and come along.

Let's keep up the pressure for change so that no child has to go to sleep without a home cooked meal.

Thank you....

The Magpie Project