Kingsbridge Area Food Bank
2
The Pitch
Problem statement
Rural South Devon is a popular holiday destination where high house prices, high rents, poor public transport and low wages present a choice for the most vulnerable between eating and paying bills. For those reliant on public transport the major towns of the area are all between 1 and 2.5 hours away by bus. The area has a 25 per cent higher number of low-skilled/waged occupations than the national average resulting in a lower average wage and self-employment amongst males is three times higher which means that job security is poor. We receive referrals from 16 agencies locally to help people struggling to make ends meet and hope to support them through periods of particular difficulty.
Solution
Kingsbridge Area Food Bank was set up to help prevent and relieve poverty in Kingsbridge and the surrounding villages, through the provision of food and assistance and support for those in need. We are entirely staffed by volunteers who take on a range of tasks including: - receiving referrals from other agencies, - assessing the needs of our clients, - gathering donated food from local collection points, - ordering and receiving deliveries of bulk-bought food, - cooking and creating ‘ready meals’ from donated food, - labelling and packing bags of food to go out to clients - delivering bags of food - help with energy poverty We have no paid staff so our main expense is food purchase.
Why are we best placed to deliver?
We have a good understanding of, and are well supported by our local community: by the 110 community volunteers that weekly keep the food bank running; the 24 businesses that support us locally; the majority of income (three-quarters) is donated by the community. Our board of 9 trustees is comprised of people who live in the local community, a third of whom have lived experience of food poverty. Our distribution centre is located in the heart of the community. Our volunteer drivers visit all of our clients on a weekly basis, they can relay a change in needs back to base and look out for those highlighted as vulnerable.
Focus Areas
Delivery plan
Budget breakdown
| Contribution to food purchases over 3 months | £2,000 |
Beneficiaries
450 people
Expected impact
During this period we will be helping over 400 people from hitting a crisis point with lasting effects. Here is just one of example from colleagues who directly liaise with clients. Mum arrived in her new home in the early hours of the morning with four children aged 18, 17 and twins aged 6. She’s a victim of Domestic Abuse and was delivered to her new home (300 miles away) by police officers and social workers. She had no friends, no support, no job, and no furniture. Reluctantly, she accepted help from our food bank – and over a period of 18 long months – she’s surrounded by support, she’s made new friends, the children are happily settled, and she no longer needs our help. We stay in touch – because she says “we saved her life” – but also because it’s great to see her thriving after such a traumatic start. We have three similar success stories to this one and many more about helping people in very different circumstances.
Track record
We were set up in 2012. Before Covid we had 30 client households and 30 volunteers. All of this had to suddenly change radically in terms of the capacity, the range of services and how provided. Now we have over 100 volunteers and currently support around 180 households by delivering food to feed around 440 individuals per week (the average for 2022 so far). During Covid we also began to provide refurbished computers for home schooling, school uniforms and recycled furniture and now we have started providing holiday meals for children entitled to free school meals. Over the Easter Holidays our dedicated volunteers have fed or provided additional food for 85 school children 680 meals, of lunch and dessert, so 1360 "dishes" in total. This was in addition to our 'normal' activities. We were awarded 'Covid Heroes' by South Hams District Council in 2020.