PLEASE NOTE  –  our centre at St John’s church, Dukinfield and St Matthews, Stalybridge will be closed on Easter bank holidays (Friday 29 March & Monday 1 April).

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The Year in Brief – Excerpts from our Annual Report 2017.

29th March 2018

Tameside East Foodbank has now been in operation since December 2012 and works as a partnership of our local churches: Holy Trinity Church, Stalybridge, St John’s Church, Dukinfield and New Life Church, Ashton under Lyne. We continue to work in partnership  with the Trussell Trust and follow their operational procedures.

The foodbank provides 3 days of emergency food on production of a foodbank voucher; We have over 150 agencies in Tameside who   supply vouchers to people identified as being in crisis. These agencies vary from national organisations such as CAB and the Probation    Service to small local charities working with specific demographic groups such as victims of domestic violence or homelessness.

New Charter continues to support the Foodbank by providing us with one of their properties to use as a warehouse. Donated food is taken to the warehouse to be weighed, sorted, stored and then sent to one of the three distribution centres.

Since opening the doors of the foodbank in 2012 we have received a total of 8368 vouchers resulting in the feeding of a total of 18002 people; 11479 adults and 6523 children.

During the year, January to December 2017 we fed a total of 4091 people; this breaks down to 2500 adults and 1591 children. This is  a slight decrease on the number fed last year. It has resulted in the distribution of 33995Kg of food.

The main reasons for clients requiring the support of the Foodbank continues to be changes and delays to welfare benefit payments; other reasons include low income, debt, sickness/ill health,        homelessness and domestic abuse.

The warehouse this year has been very busy, with peaks and troughs in the Donations, with a steady increase in issues monthly through the year.

 

 

The main donations of note were :-

 

  • Harvest  2650.75 kg
  • Christmas 1649.61 kg
  • Tesco’s collections July 3115.75 kg & December 2476.58 kg

 

Several churches donate food on a regular basis – these include Dukinfield Baptist Church, Dukinfield Congregational Church,           St Christopher’s Church, Ashton Under Lyne; St Georges Church,  Stalybridge and St Peter’s Church Stalybridge; Ashton Central Mosque are also regular donors as are several local schools, colleges and  businesses.

Our thanks go again to Tesco Supermarket who, as well as allowing in store collections and a regular Dropbox for donations, support us through a monetary top up, allowing the replenishment of low stock items and items of a personal nature.

A total of around 100 volunteers continue to support the Foodbank by running the distribution centre’s (providing refreshments to clients, sign-posting clients to other agencies as well as distributing the food),  in the warehouse (by weighing , sorting and replenishing food stocks) and at supermarket collections. Our volunteer coordinators are      responsible for the recruitment of volunteers and operate a database of contacts to inform of specific needs such as staffing supermarket collections.

Our vision is to provide emergency food to local people in crisis and we will continue to promote the foodbank within the local community and  beyond.    We will also continue to forge links with local       businesses, employers, community groups and strategic agencies.

Again this year we have been so encouraged and blessed with the support given to us from across the local community.

 

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