Christ Faith Tabernacle Bristol: Still showing up. No questions asked.
How Christ Faith Tabernacle is meeting food poverty in Fishponds — with no questions asked, and no fanfare required.
Every Sunday after the service at Christ Faith Tabernacle (CFT) Bristol in Fishponds, a door opens. Anyone who needs it — church member or stranger, person of faith or none — can walk through it and leave with a Bag of Hope.
No forms. No means test. No explanation required.
The project has been running for over five years, and it started not as a community programme but as a simple act of internal care. "We realised there were people who would come to church but not have any food at home," says Pastor Kehinde Benson. "So it started from - let's just support each other."
It didn't stay internal for long. From the congregation, the bags moved to the doorsteps of Fishponds. Specially printed cards were dropped through letterboxes. Word spread. People who'd never visited the church found their way to it on a Sunday morning - and left with something to feed their family.
The response, Benson says, is consistently one of surprise. Not just gratitude - surprise. "We get text messages from people who came for the first time, gone home with the bags, and they message us back saying: this is incredible. This is something I needed at this time."
"When they pick up the Bag of Hope, you can see in their eyes - it's like almost like a sigh. Like, at least I'm going to have something to feed myself and my family."
That moment - the quiet exhale of relief - is what has kept CFT going year after year. One family arrived uncertain. "You could just see on their faces," Benson recalls. "They were so grateful that someone cared enough to do that for them."
For CFT, Bags of Hope is not a side project. It flows directly from the church's understanding of its own mission. "We want to be a church in the community, that is part of the community and loves the community," says Benson - and that love, in his framing, is unconditional. It doesn't require anyone to sign up, attend a service, or share their circumstances.
"Fishponds is part of our family as well. So that's kind of like what we do and why we do it - we love people and we just want to ensure that we can help in whatever we can."
With support from the Bristol Churches City Fund, CFT Bristol is continuing and expanding the Bags of Hope project through early 2026 - distributing 200 food bags and running seasonal community drop-in sessions over Christmas and New Year. The funding, Benson says, makes generosity sustainable: "It has really helped us to be more generous and more consistent."
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