This site is mostly about donating things well. This piece is different — real, named local places to go if you or someone you know needs help now, not eventually. I've only included organisations I could verify are genuinely operating, with a working referral route, rather than a generic list.
Trussell food banks distributed over 2.6 million emergency food parcels across the UK in 2025 — 45% more than before the cost-of-living crisis began. Families with children received 62% of parcels despite being 42% of the population, and parcels for people aged 65 and over have risen from 26,037 in 2019 to 90,443 in 2025 — more than three times as many.
Eat or Heat, based on Jewel Road in Walthamstow (E17 4QU), provides three days of emergency food for a limited period. Referrals come through a professional — a GP, school, Citizens Advice, a council officer, or a similar contact — rather than directly, and the referral form goes to referrals@eatorheat.org or by calling 0800 772 0212. The Rukhsana Khan Foundation Foodbank, also in Walthamstow, opened in 2013 as the area's first, and is one of the borough's busiest.
Beyond food specifically, the council runs around 46 free Winter Spaces across the borough — warm, welcoming places to sit, get advice, or just be somewhere — alongside food and utility vouchers distributed through Citizens Advice Waltham Forest's community front door scheme, and monthly Energy Cafés on energy use and bills. Waltham Forest Council's own food support page is the most up-to-date single place to check what's currently running.
The Epping Forest Foodbank is part of the Trussell network and covers exactly the Essex towns on this directory: Tuesdays at Epping Civic Centre, Wednesdays at St Mary's Church and the Hope Centre in Loughton, Thursdays at the Hazelwood Children's Centre in Waltham Abbey, and Saturdays at Trinity Methodist Church in Debden. As with most Trussell food banks, you need a voucher from a frontline referrer — a GP, health visitor, school or similar — which the foodbank's own site explains how to get. Contact: 0300 102 9808 or info@eppingforest.foodbank.org.uk.
That's completely fine — this directory and the rest of this site will still be here when it is. If a friend or neighbour needs pointing somewhere today, this page is written so you can just send them the link. If it's specifically the school holidays making things harder, there's a separate page on that too.