We’re being asked lots of questions about the possible impact of coronavirus on people needing food banks, and the support food banks will be able to provide.
This is an unprecedented challenge, and we don’t yet know how things will unfold. We’re working with our network on how best to support people, and wherever possible, food banks will continue to provide the lifeline of emergency food. (more…)
Read moreAs new figures reveal the level of generosity from the public to food banks in the run up to last Christmas, the Trussell Trust is calling on the government to end the five week wait for Universal Credit.
New figures released today show 3,072 tonnes of food were donated to food banks in the Trussell Trust’s network in December 2019, as donations from the public kept pace with the increased need for emergency food seen last year. (more…)
Read moreA key part of the Fight Hunger Create Change partnership between Asda, the Trussell Trust and FareShare is a grants programme for food banks in our network, providing crucial additional resources to increase the breadth of services they can offer people to help prevent someone needing a food bank again in the future.
This month we are collectively marking our two-year anniversary of the partnership and sharing stories of the difference it has made to people’s lives. A year on from receiving their grant funding, Colchester Foodbank has been able to achieve everything it had planned over three years. Michael Beckett, who is the chief officer at the food bank, explains what has been made possible… (more…)
Read moreA blog post by
Samantha Stapley
Chief Operations Officer
It is unacceptable that anyone in our country is forced to turn to a food bank. We’re working hard to reach a future where everyone has enough money to buy their own food, but we know we can’t get there on our own.
That’s why this week we’re marking the second year of our three-year Fight Hunger Create Change partnership with Asda and FareShare, and looking back at our work together so far. (more…)
Read moreA blog post by
Emma Greenwood
Area Manager for South West England
One of the greatest privileges of my job is spending time with our amazing food bank teams. Living, breathing, walking embodiments of our key values of community, compassion, dignity and justice.
I spent yesterday morning with a small group of project managers. We were discussing what their roles entailed – the list of responsibilities went on and on and on. (more…)
Read moreA blog post by
Emma Greenwood
Area Manager for South West England
I’m reflecting on a busy week for the food banks I support across the South West.
I’m simultaneously saddened and angered by the increase of people coming through their doors; whilst in awe of the time and energy given by so many volunteers to cope with this increase in demand. They must all be exhausted after probably their busiest Christmas ever – but still showing kindness and offering support to those in need.
People have been generous – warehouses are over-flowing with donations of food and its good to see financial donations coming in that ensure these organisations can continue to keep their doors open. Thank you.
I’m often asked what people can do to support their local food banks – and yes, donations of food are really important. Please get in touch with your food bank first to see what food they are most in need of – but hold off dropping anything off until January now as most are finding it a squeeze at the moment.
But do you also know else you can do?
Don’t accept that this is normal. Continue to be shocked and saddened by the news of increased food bank use and think about how you can play a part in working towards a future where food banks are not needed.
We know hunger in the UK is not about lack of food. It’s about people not having enough money. And we know that things need to change.
Everyone can play a part and challenge the structural issues that lock people into poverty.
So, my New Year’s Resolution is going to rise to this challenge – to use the voice I have to campaign for change.
Who’s with me?
You can sign up as a campaigner or ask for a volunteer pack to help us end the need for food banks. We know that with your help, this can change.
Read moreA key part of the Fight Hunger Create Change partnership between Asda, the Trussell Trust and FareShare is a grants programme for food banks in our network, providing crucial additional resources to increase the breath of services they can offer people to help prevent someone needing a food bank again in the future.
A year on from using their grant funding to establish a counselling service, Gateway Trust Counselling, Ribble Valley Foodbank manager Jane Chitnis and volunteer and trained counsellor Ali Groves, who set up the initiative, explain the difference it’s made…
Jane: We’re trying to offer a holistic approach to people coming through our doors so that the positive benefits are felt by all beyond food. We know so many people we meet at our food bank are affected by mental health issues.
Ali, a past food bank volunteer and trained counsellor, immediately saw the need for a counselling service. There are so many people we signpost to different services and she knows all too well how long it can take to access counselling through the NHS. Due to pressure and demand the limited session provision can take longer than six months to become available.
Ali heads up a team with four volunteer counsellors. People seeking counselling are offered appointments on a weekly or fortnightly basis. People are counselled whether or not they can afford a donation and the service is often fully booked. People can self-refer, or be referred by the food bank signposters.
There’s a huge need for this kind of initiative and we have felt immediate benefits within the community.
Volunteers feel more confident knowing they can offer someone a free counselling service because of the Asda grant funding, rather than simply signposting them on elsewhere. There are many practical ways you can help people, but this kind of therapy is at the heart of helping to equip people to move forward in their lives.
Ali: We’re able to offer people a tailored counselling service and I think that makes a massive difference. We’re able to really come alongside someone, for however long they need.
We’ve worked with 50 people in the past year – while some people only need three sessions and then something clicks and they know what they want to do, some people have more complex issues to work through, and we might be working together for something closer to 40 sessions.
Here are some testimonials from people who have completed therapy with us:
“I’ve never felt so heard and understood by a therapist before and the lasting effects of my time with Gateway have been amazing. I now have the understanding and the tools to effectively navigate negative situations that arise.”
“I just thought you’d like to know that because of my counselling I have grown in confidence. This has meant that my boss hasn’t once shouted at me since and he treats me like all the other workers. So thank you for helping me.”
The flexibility we offer means we can fit with what people need. We have been working with someone at the moment who’s waited six months for eight sessions of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy through the NHS. We’re able to bridge that gap while he’s waiting, and after he’s had his allocated sessions with the team at the NHS, he knows if there’s anything he wants to pick back up with us then we’re here.
I can demonstrate the difference we’re making really clearly because of a series of questions we use with our clients to assess their mental health which create a score – when the client who is now receiving CBT first came in, his score was really high at 33, but now it’s halved and dropped to 16. We often see people’s scores really dropping in this way, hopefully it means we’ve paved the way and all the work he’s done with us means the CBT he’ll get at the NHS will really help.
But I think one of the things that shows most clearly the difference that’s being made in our community are the things we hear from people we’ve worked with. So I want to end with this lovely message from a widow with two young children, who we’ve worked with closely throughout the year:
“I can’t thank you enough for walking through this last year with me. Your genuine faith and care have helped me through what could have been a totally overwhelming time.”
Read moreFollowing the results of the 2019 election, Emma Revie, chief executive of the Trussell Trust said:
“The Conservative party manifesto for this election promised ‘we will do more to make universal credit work’. Just last week on the campaign trail, Boris Johnson said helping people with the cost of living is ‘an absolute crusade’ for him personally.
“It is crucial these words are acted on. We know what hasn’t been working as it should, and we know what needs to change. We must start putting money back into the pockets of people who most need support, by ending the five week wait for Universal Credit, ensuring benefit payments cover the cost of living and investing in local emergency support for people in crisis.
“It’s in our power as a country to end the need for food banks. But if we’re to get there, we need our new government to act. We’re ready to share evidence from our network of food banks across the UK, and we’d encourage any new MPs to speak to their local food bank about why people are being referred for emergency food. It’s not right that anyone should have to turn to charity for the basics – this can change.”
Ends
Contact
020 3137 3699
Notes to editor
Data released recently shows December 2018 was the busiest month for food banks last year. 186,185 three-day emergency food parcels were provided by food banks in the Trussell Trust’s network to people in crisis; 78,536 of these went to children. This is 44% higher than the monthly average for the 2018-19 financial year.
Just weeks ago, the charity published figures for April – Sept 2019, showing that there has already been a 23% increase in the number of food parcels provided compared to the same period in 2018.
About the Trussell Trust:
As election day unfolds, I want to look at the direct impact food banks and our charity partners have had on the pledges political parties have made in the hope of securing votes today.
The impact of food banks’ collective voice on party manifestos is clear.
The Conservative party has confirmed they will end the benefits freeze and add safeguards to Universal Credit. The Labour and Liberal Democrat party manifestos both recognise the message of #5WeeksTooLong and promise an end to the five week wait for Universal Credit. The SNP manifesto promises to make up the losses in benefit payments caused by benefits freezes and cuts, while Plaid Cymru, the Green party and others talk about the need to make changes to our current benefits system.
We shouldn’t take this lightly.
That widespread, cross-party recognition that our benefits system should be working to protect people from poverty is new. And it hasn’t happened by chance.
These pledges to make much-needed change are because we have worked together so closely with our network food banks and countless other charity partners over the last year, putting time, energy and resource into highlighting the reasons why people need food banks, and crucially, what changes would prevent people needing a food bank in the future.
Irrespective of who wins this General Election, we must continue to press forward. Elections are not just for Christmas after all!
These party manifestos are an indication of the difference we can make on people who have the highest level of decision-making power. We are already making a difference – poverty can be solved and you can help.
Join us as a campaigner today and make your voice heard.
This can change.
Emma Revie
Chief Executive
Read moreA key part of the Fight Hunger Create Change partnership between Asda, the Trussell Trust and FareShare is a grants programme for food banks in our network, providing crucial additional resources to increase the breath of services they can offer people to help prevent someone needing a food bank again in the future.
Emma Murray from Bristol North West Foodbank explains what their successful grant application has meant for people referred to the food bank…
About a year ago we took on the ambitious move to try and take on an advice worker ourselves at the food bank on a nine-month contract.
Immediately we started to see the huge positive impact it was having on people referred and we were thinking, why have we not done this before? We have to keep this person! So we applied for a large Fight Hunger Create Change grant through the Trussell Trust, because we wanted to really commit long term to having a more holistic approach as a food bank.
One example of the difference that’s been made is Jack’s experience*. When he came to the food bank, he’d been sleeping by the river for eighteen months in a tent in Bristol. We helped him with food, and he had a wash in our sinks, that sort of thing. He started turning up every Monday morning, and as we got our advice worker she was able to work with him and connect him up with the local support services at Shelter.
The whole process meant he was off the streets before winter and he quite literally said ‘I think I would have died if I had spent another winter out sleeping in a tent’.
The team there are now looking at putting him in more permanent location. For Jack, having someone right at that crisis point in a food bank centre, who had the expertise, connections and time to sit down and look at what support was needed, was totally life changing.
No one should need our food bank – Jack should never have been in that position in the first place. That’s why we’re part of the Trussell Trust network, working alongside other food banks to campaign for long-term changes that will bring us closer to a future where there’s no need for food banks.
But while that long-term work is underway, we want to do all we can in our community to make sure people like Jack can access the best possible help right now.
As a local charity, it would have been hard for us to make that leap to employ someone permanently to give advice, and now we’ve got that grant it’s kick started something and I think it should work for as long as that’s help is needed. So we’d really like to thank Asda and the Trussell Trust – having someone paid who is able to commit to providing that service in the food bank in the long-term is making a huge difference.
We work really hard to create a welcoming atmosphere in our centres, a space where someone can feel comfortable to tell us why they need a food bank, over a cup of tea or coffee. And now we have an advice worker across all of our four food bank centres, we know that we really can help somebody once they share something with us. Together, we can take those steps towards making sure they don’t need our help again.
*Jack’s name has been changed
Read more
