Food Bank - every Tuesday 10 am - 1 pm
These are photographs of the Foodbank at West End Impact. One at the beginning of Tuesday morning, after we had done and shelved a top up shop; and another photograph at the end of the morning.
We started the session with 20 food parcels ready to go, and when we ended we had 21 ready for the next session. We have to have some ready because people are queueing as we open.
During the morning we handed out 45 parcels, there will probably be another 20 going out on Thursday this week - then next week we'll do it all over again.
Each parcel contains approx:
1 packet of cereal or strip of weetabix or bag of oats
1tin of baked beans or pasta
1 tin soup or box of cupasoup
1 tin fish
1 tin meat meal or cooked meat or hotdogs or ravioli or meatballs.
1 tin fruit or jar of jam, occasionally rice pudding or custard instead.
1 bag of dried pasta or rice
1 jar pasta sauce or tin of tomatoes
1 tin veg (which might be potatoes/beans/lentils/vegetarian stew instead)
1 instant such as supernoodles, instant pasta, instant mash
1 packet of biscuits
1 packet of tea (often split from large packets, so around 20 teabags)
1 roll of toilet paper.
We try to keep UHT milk on hand to give on request, most people ask for it.
A food parcel, buying the cheapest we can costs an average of £10, so today we gave out £450 worth of food.
We try to have toiletries, tin openers, sugar, coffee, washing up liquid, clothes washing tabs, to give out on request but never buy these, if none have been donated we tell people we don’t have any. All packs of these we split up whenever possible. We try to make up parcels from donated food, but more and more recently are having to do top up shops. We’ve done price comparisons and found Aldi to give us best value, making the money stretch as far as we can.
If you want to make a one off or even a regular donation...
Our foodbank provides vital support for people in food poverty. There is no limit to how many parcels someone can have in a certain time period and no one is asked to prove they are deserving.
At the moment we never turn anyone away, and we don’t insist on referrals or tickets. This can mean that sometimes people take without being desperate, but it also means we help those who fall through other cracks. Getting to know people who might come often gives us opportunities to gain enough trust to help them in other ways, with benefit claims, with mental health, with accessing health services, with budgeting, and with referrals to other services. However being able to keep on doing this means we need food. We have donation points for food in a few supermarkets, and some financial donations are given specifically for Foodbank…but need is increasing, and what people can afford to donate is decreasing. All foodbanks are in the same position, we’ve talked to them. Over the last year to 18 months the number of people asking for food parcels has roughly doubled.
So friends, if you are not local, please consider donating to your own local Foodbank. Even if you can only add one tin to your weekly shop, that will help.
If you are local and want to help West End Impact Foodbank there are lots of things you can do…There is a collection point in Morecambe Morrisons, Garstang Sainsburys and St Patrick's school in Heysham.
If you fill a shopping bag yourself, or amongst your friends, street, church, group, etc etc, let us know and we can arrange to come and collect.
If you are involved with a group, scouts, guides, church, business, women’s, men’s, and want someone to give a talk to you about the work Impact does, we can arrange that.
Please help if you can.