Oxford Mutual Aid Limited

Our Mission

OMA's vision is of a society where everyone has access to healthy, nutritious, and affordable food, while benefiting from the positive impact on physical health, well-being and social connectivity that this brings.

OMA's mission

OMA's mission is to embed the belief throughout our city that access to healthy, nutritious and affordable food is a basic human right. While inequalities in accessing food persist, and while food vulnerability affects people in our communities, we seek to redress this imbalance by delivering free, healthy food and re-heatable meals to people experiencing deprivation and food poverty in our city.

Our mission is mutual aid, not charity. All our food services are delivered with dignity and in solidarity.

OMA's Mission in Focus:

Oxford Mutual Aid is a community organisation which works to support our peers and neighbours in Oxford, primarily through the provision of food support. Founded to respond to the challenges of the pandemic, we have since become a vital part of Oxford's aid infrastructure. We are the only local service that is active seven days a week, operates on a delivery basis, and supplies baby necessities.

We believe that nobody should face food insecurity, or experience stigma for seeking assistance. We do not implement means testing as it is invasive, expensive, and discourages people from seeking help. We provide regular food, baby and other essential supplies parcel support to more than 2,000 people in 834 households across Oxford (over 1% of the non-student population) and have delivered over 20,000 food parcels to date.

We believe in supporting physical, mental, and emotional health. For this reason we offer nutritious and inviting food parcels that match the preferences, health requirements, and ethical/religious needs of each individual. Where people don't have the facilities or capacity to cook, we offer volunteer-prepared meals. Our Kitchen Collective programme has to date provided over 30,000 meals to the community, which, as well as providing nutritious meals to those with minimal cooking facilities, has been vital in bringing together organisations from across the city, including colleges, universities and local groups. Collaboration has always been at the heart of what we do. This is centered upon building systems that source and supply nutritious food to those who need it, reduce food waste and, and support local businesses. Through local supply networks, we can increase the food/supply resilience of our community in a time of uncertainty. We believe in solidarity. Our volunteers come from within the community that we serve. Many of us receive food support from Oxford Mutual Aid, giving us invaluable insight into how our processes work on every level. We aim to ensure that volunteers and recipients are empowered to see their positive impact in the community, harnessing their abilities in ways that recognise the value of diverse experiences, while being mindful of different capacities. We try to ensure that the people delivering parcels to each individual remain the same week by week, so that they can develop a rapport. We also contact each of our regular recipients of support each week, with the aim of creating a network that connects our users to each other and their community, reducing the risk of social isolation and the negative health outcomes that it causes. We believe in community. This foundational value is why we wish to establish an intergenerational lunch club, enabling members of the community to socialise with each other where they otherwise would not have the opportunity.