19/03/2024
"The Okehampton Food Bank is venturing into unknown territory!"
We have been given the use of the shop next to and owned by The Baptist Church, in the centre of town.
We moved in a month ago and are adapting to working in a space ten times smaller than the Church hall!
We appreciate the assistance the Minister, Cliff Jackson, and the Baptist Church {Chapel} gave us with this new stage in the life of Okehampton Food Bank.
The shop, gives us a physical identity in the town, being on Fore Street. This will enable us to develop retail ideas to boost our dwindling donations. The gift items we intend to sell will have food and drink as a general theme, and we hope to launch this in the next few months.
So many people are finding life challenging at the moment; caused by the ever increasing cost of living. Our intention was to create a space similar to a village shop where our families can browse and chose the items they need for the week ahead. The shop front is waiting for dryer and warmer weather before we tackle that part of the project.
The shop can't supply everything, but by giving what we have, it enables our families to use what money they have to pay for other essentials such as heating, electricity, transport costs.
One worrying development is the increase in the number of young couples who both work but can not earn enough to pay their rent and buy food. The food bank helps all facing food insecurity in these difficult times by a strict referral system. Families (which include families of 1) are referred to us by outside agencies, such as : Citizens Advice, DCC, Social Workers, WDBC, Doctors surgeries, Charities, Health Visitors, Nurses, Schools etc. Once we have a referral we support families for 4 weeks.
When the referral comes to an end, and if the family are still in difficulty we can accept additional referrals but, this is not always necessary. So, contrary to popular belief we are not a free food shop open to all. It is important that we only give help to those in pressing need.
At the food bank we have had to cope with so many more families needing our help combined with food inflation of 22% and a 68% drop in donations! So, it would be true to say we are finding it challenging to help so many people at the moment.
The number of people helped in 2022 was 3093. This rose to 4500 in 2023 . This year, if nothing changes, we are expecting to be helping 200 people a week by the Autumn and, we don’t have the resources to cope with this many people.
When the food bank began in 2008 no one could have foreseen the exponential growth in need from the closure of several factories in 2011 through to the Covid Lockdowns and the subsequent financial crisis the country currently finds itself in. We have seen a huge drop in smaller donations. People who were able to donate a little, regularly, now, these same people, are finding life difficult and they do not have the extra to give to good causes, such as The Okehampton Food Bank.
We are in desperate need of a steady supply of food donations to feed the 135 people we are currently helping every week. Many of those are families with young children who are anxious about getting enough food to feed their family. In addition we help: the elderly, the infirm, those on low income or no income, refugees from both Ukraine and Afghanistan and many more.
The recent influx of families fleeing Afghanistan by way of the Afghan Resettlement Scheme has meant we are now helping an additional 30 people, with no additional funds from central or local government. The Oakhampton Food Bank is supported by local people and local businesses. We do not receive financial help from either the town council or the borough council.
If you wish to donate food to The Okehampton Food Bank then you can leave your donations in the food collection points in the Co-Op and Waitrose where we will collect them. We do not receive customer donations from Lidl.
You can always drop food donations off at the food bank shop situated between Peacocks and the Baptist Chapel on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday mornings. It is always nice to speak with our donors, as much of what we receive by way of donations, either food or cash is anonymous. It is wonderful to be able to thank people in person.
You can also make cash donations through our website, okehamptonfoodbank.co.uk ,where you can click on one of the donation buttons to make a one off or recuring donation.
We have a specific button for anyone who would like to help support the families from Afghanistan who have fled their homes for safety in the UK. Or, you can send cheques to Okehampton Food Bank, 19 Fore Street, Okehampton, EX201AN.
We are as ever, so grateful to the customers of Waitrose and Co-Op for their continued support for the food bank. We are also grateful that both these stores continue to support The Okehampton Food Bank; I know we don’t thank them enough.
This Friday March 22nd Rotary have organised a food drive outside the entrance to Waitrose. Customers and passers bye will be able to leave food donations or cash if they prefer, to support the work of The Okehampton Food Bank in helping so many local people.
We are grateful for the continued help and support we receive from the Okehampton branch of Rotary. If anyone else would like to fundraise for us please do get in touch to explain your ideas.
