North Ayrshire Foodbank would like to take this opportunity to send season’s greetings to all. May it be a time of peace, wellbeing, and rest.
It has been a difficult year for everyone due to the energy crisis, high inflation, as well as cost of living increases. Yet communities, individuals, businesses, schools, and clubs have strived to continue to make sacrifices for the benefit of their fellow residents of North Ayrshire. Those sacrifices, driven by a charitable concern to ensure that those who need it most do not go hungry, has provided the resources to allow the foodbank to continue in its role as the conduit to pass on your benefice.
This has meant that you have passed on sufficient donations of food and funds to create a stock weighing in at 51,824.38 tons. That food was then, through a network of partners across North Ayrshire, utilised to address the immediate needs of 6,130 persons over the period of 4th April 2022 to 3rd April 2023. On average 4,592 adults and 1,538 children received 8.24kg of food. That 8.24kg consisted of 3-days worth of meals covering breakfast, lunch and an evening meal as well as some treats, when available.
The principal driver for seeking to reach out to the foodbank is low income. That low income is both through insufficient funds being derived through work as well as Social Security. The Trussell Trust has, to address low income, provided two grant streams to provide additional capacity to effect changes of benefit to those we support. The first is Welfare Rights whereby our dedicated officer based within Money Matters has improved the financial wellbeing of at least 356 persons with an interim report indicating a financial gain since 2021 of £352,911.05. The foodbank would recommend everyone have a financial review annually carried out and the foodbank will happily make a referral to our dedicated Welfare Rights Officer. The second grant stream relates to a Campaign Officer who will work with communities to seek to address the root causes of a lack of income to reduce the need for people to seek the services of the foodbank; if indeed not to see the foodbank close in the near future. The Trussell Trust has a national campaign called “guarantee our essential”. It is easily found online and we would encourage you to sign the petition. At a local level we will be recruiting an officer over the winter and aspire to have the best person in the post by April 2024.
The foodbank has been fortunate to have received funding from the BBC Children in Need to deliver our school holiday activity club these last 7-years. As members of “Make Lunch” we share the desire to see no child go hungry during the school holidays. The club provides a daily activity as well as a healthy and nutritional meal. There are three aims: provide a meal, provide social activities free of charge and reduce household stress. Operating in Ardeer and Ardrossan we support 60 households per day. In addition to a base placed approach we also run a junior chef programme which provides a weekly pack of raw ingredients with recipe cards. These are sent to 20 households a week. The households’ children take the lead on cooking the meals with twice weekly online support provided to give advice and create a social network of junior chefs.
Whilst the foodbank is there to support those in “crisis” we also have a service for those facing an on-going chronic shortage of funds. The larder project is still focussed upon those in “most need”. The difference between the two groups is that the “chronic” have some funds to contribute to the food support. The larder is there for those who need a boost to their shopping, and they pay a weekly membership of £4.00 and receive around £16.00 worth of goods. It is our aspiration that those using the larder, as examples, can utilise the savings to afford extra food, heating, debt reduction, children’s school uniforms and equipment. We ask three questions around financial insecurity to ensure our limited resources go to those in genuine need. Currently “Ardrossan South Larder” supports on average 22 households per week with capacity to assist more households. However, the larder is not a core project of the foodbank and therefore must be self-funding. This work is part-financed by our generous Local Authority as well as grants to ensure members’ contributions can buy the stock necessary each week. Those three sources have kept the larder sufficiently funded; meaning the foodbank has not had to draw on donated funds given for our core work as a foodbank.
Warm spaces are a new phenomenon, and we ran one over the winter of 2022/23. On average 56 persons attended daily the 4-day a week service which ran from 10am until 8pm. To entertain those attending we ran a full programme of daily events including hospitality, television space, reading room, gaming systems, arts & crafts, pool tables, board games, newspapers, as well as visiting agencies for information and advice. This was financially supported by an Awards for All grant. A development from the Warm space saw the arts & crafts worker gain funding from the Councils “participatory budget” scheme to run an adults arts group. This ran over the autumn and will be repeated in Spring 2024. It is open to all adults who would like to explore a variety of techniques.
The mobile cinema, run by Gordon Cowan and his team, has now established a partnership with the Argyle Centre, Saltcoats as well as continuing at our main base at the Ardrossan Church of the Nazarene. The easiest way to track where the weekly showing is happening is to follow their Facebook page. Originally aimed at family focussed films (PG or 12A rated) there have been occasions when movies suitable for older children and adults have been shown. We are pleased that this project has reached its seventh year and has a regular attendance level of 35-40 persons per showing.
The festive season of 2022 was once again enhanced for many households through the gift of 250 festive hampers distributed by our voucher issuing partners. Community Windpower Limited funded the foodbank and Stalker Butchers, Dalry to secure the contents. That included the Turkey, trimmings, and festive treats. The foodbank also worked with the Housing Support team to distribute 250 enhanced food boxes to every temporary accommodation to ensure those residents had sufficient food to get through to the New Year. Generous donations of pringles, soft drinks, christmas biscuits, as well as selection boxes add to the festive feel of the provision. The children of our “make a meal of it” project enjoyed a christmas special via a pantomime and a great pre-event meal followed by a visit from Santa Claus. Gifts for 60 households were raised through the “Glasgow Spirit of Christmas” portal where they have many dedicated elves encouraging toy donations. So many children’s Christmases would be poorer if not for “Glasgow Spirit of Christmas and their legion of toy donors. Thank you.
The foodbanks operations are only possible thanks to the investment of volunteers who bring in the food from supermarkets, sort & pack the food, deliver it to homes as well as to pack all the festive packs. Twice a year three churches aid at the Tesco National Food drive which bring in on average 6 tons of food. We also have events at Sainsbury’s and Asda across the year and would welcome extra hands to hand out leaflets as well as receive the donations at those in-store events. The Councils Justice Service and Community Facilities are crucial supporters at key points of the year, and we are grateful that their Departmental Managers give this support.
The foodbank has gained the support of a local Football celebrity, Erin Cuthbert and we are working on how best to utilise this Ambassador. Erin has been very enthusiastic during this early stage in our partnership as has her Corporate Sponsor, Arnold Clark.
The foodbank has been generously supported by far too many people and agencies to name and we apologise. The foodbank would not exist without each supporter. However, one group of enthusiastic fundraisers we feel have to be mentioned are the “Grey Dippers”. The team go for a sponsored dip at South Beach every morning for 3-months and are supported by generous donors who clearly admire and respected their novel activity. Including Gift Aid they raised £23,000 in 2023 which allowed the Foodbank to buy the stock which became part of the 51.824.38 tons mentioned at the start of this report.
Whilst we know nobody wants foodbanks to exist, we strive to ensure that we carry out our work in the best way possible and in a way that respects the generosity of the many and the dignity of those utilising our services. In conclusion and in summary – thank you for caring, sacrificing and feeding those most in need of your support.