Your impact on hunger in 2024
Impact can go two ways - clients are teaching us what food works best for them in our new self-serve foodbank service.
Isn’t it wonderful when a big bold plan turns out to be everything you hoped for and more? That’s exactly what happened with our new self-serve foodbank which had its first full year of operation in 2024.
Our foodbank is one of our best-known services and its impact has always been significant for those who need it – but even so we decided we could still improve how we operated it.
We run a twin foodbank service from our Hereford Street site. Clients who have been assessed can receive either a traditional pre-packed parcel or shop at the self-serve foodbank.
At the start of 2024 we were doing about half our parcels as self-serve and half as pre-packed and that is an amazing impact given those parcels feed 300 people every day we are open. But as the self-serve operation’s benefits became increasingly obvious and our clients’ enthusiasm for it grew, we revised our systems and added resources so now we support significantly more people in self-serve than in pre-packed.
Shopping for food instead of receiving a pre-packed parcel is more dignified and our clients responded eagerly to being helped in this way. That’s a personal impact that means so much to those who arrive feeling ashamed to ask for help and leave feeling happy that the community cares.
We were also delighted to see new efficiencies emerge. When clients choose food that matches their dietary requirements there is less food waste. They also choose food knowing what they already have in their cupboards. This means they can make decisions around topping up and complementing the food they already have.
The self-serve service also allows clients to have an impact on us - on the choices we offer in this service. It lets us track what is popular and what isn’t among the staple items and has given us some important guidance on what we need to stock on the shelves.
A good example are chickpeas and lentils which we enthusiastically provided because we knew they were such good food sources. The self-serve foodbank showed us they were not popular. While they are still there for those who want them, we now stock products like mild chilli beans which are snapped up. We often provide mince, and these beans are great added to a mince dish to bulk it up and make it go further.
Another lesson we learned is the need to provide enough soft food options like creamed corn because many of our clients have severe teeth issues – it’s a sad reminder of the physical impact poverty has on the most vulnerable.
Your support is creating a highly positive impact on our clients. Thank you for thinking of them.