We are part of The Trussell Trust, which was inspired by a passage from Matthew’s Gospel: “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat” it grew mainly through Churches keen to address hunger in their local communities.
The Trust provided us with a blueprint for setting up and running a food bank, from health and safety guidelines to procedures for weighing and recording donations, to what each food parcel should contain depending on the number of people it has to feed.
People cannot just turn up and get food. Clients must be referred by an agency such as social services, health visitors, the probation service, welfare support or schools who have seen that they are in need of emergency help.
There is a limit to how many referrals you can get, such as five three-day food parcel per crisis, but this is only a guideline and not a rule.
The foodbank handles ambient food and clients get what they are given from a standard checklist: for a single person it’s a box of cereal, 500g of rice or pasta, some chocolate and biscuits, long-life milk, teabags, juice and tins of soup, vegetables and so on. Each parcels provide a nutritionally balanced diet.
In addition to the food parcel, clients also get toiletries and household cleaning materials, cat and dog food, if we have them in stock.
There is also a ‘help yourself’ table of items that are slightly out of date or items that have been donated but are not recommended for the standard food parcel.
The Somer Valley Foodbank depends on donations from the local community and we have collection bins in the local supermarkets and many churches.
Businesses and schools also donate great amounts at seasonal times such as Harvest and Christmas.
The donations from the people in this community have been fantastic, as shown by the results of the collection held in Tesco recently, when we collected 1,800kgs of food, which was one hundred and fifty crates of food or three hundred and sixty carrier bags of food!
We are indeed very thankful and want to say a great big thank you to all those who gave. We also want to give a big thank you to the local Tesco store for letting us hold the collection.
Thanks to the local support of this, the Somer Valley Foodbank can continue to support people in crisis in this area. Thank you.
The Foodbank depends on the donations from people in this area in order to keep it serving those in need. With annual costs of around £9000 for the use of a warehouse and to keep the van on the road, any donations by the public is extremely appreciated.
If you would like to help the Somer Valley Foodbank continue to support people in our local area, see their website for an up-to-date list of items wanted: https://somervalley.foodbank.org.uk/give-help/donate-food/
To donate money straight to the Foodbank, visit: https://somervalley.foodbank.org.uk/give-help/donate-money/