No neighbour in Bradford should face hardship alone.

Dear friends,

As the first cold nights arrived in Bradford, we were able to hand out 144 winter jackets to children and adults across our community. Coats, hats, mitts and scarves went out through our home visits, the food pantry, and with the help of our friends at the local schools.

Thank you to every volunteer who sorted, sized and delivered, and to everyone who donated a coat or the funds to buy one. Because of your generosity, nobody had to go without warm clothing this season.

With gratitude,
The Bradford Conference

Dear friends of the conference,

Our spring food drive begins this month and runs until Easter. Over the winter we used more of the pantry than we took in, and a handful of staples are running low.

If you can help, the most useful items right now are pasta, rice, tinned tomatoes, cereal, peanut butter, coffee and laundry detergent. Donations can be dropped at the pantry during our opening hours, or brought along to any weekend Mass and left in the basket by the doors.

Our visiting teams continue to go out in pairs every second Tuesday. Last month we made 22 home visits and helped 9 households with heating or rent costs that would otherwise have tipped them over.

Thank you for making this work possible.

Dear friends,

February brought one of the coldest stretches we have seen in years. Within a week of the first deep freeze, parishioners had covered emergency heating bills for six families and filled every request on our winter coat list.

We also closed the books on our Christmas hamper appeal. Together, we packed and delivered 84 hampers, reaching 197 neighbours across Bradford. That is 11 more households than last year.

If you know someone who is struggling, please encourage them to call us. A phone call is all it takes to start, and every request is handled in confidence.

Dear friends of St. Vincent de Paul,

Thank you for everything you gave in the past twelve months — your time, your food, your money and your prayers. Last year our small conference delivered more than 1,100 food hampers, made hundreds of home visits and gave over 5,000 hours of volunteer service.

In 2026 we want to do three things better: reach households before a crisis rather than during one, make it easier for new volunteers to join a visiting team, and keep every bit of the support we give personal, unhurried and confidential.

If you would like to be part of it, come and find us after Mass or send us a note through the website. There is always room for one more pair of hands.