As the coronavirus pandemic unfolds in the UK, our main priority is ensuring the safety of everyone who comes to our food bank whether it’s someone needing help, someone volunteering their time, or someone making a donation.
Things are changing quickly, so we’ll keep our website updated regularly with information about what’s happening and how people can access support and help us be there for people in crisis.
We’re still open and supporting people with emergency food and will do for as long as is possible. At present our food bank is open at the usual opening times:
Tuesdays – 12pm to 2pm
Saturdays – 10am – 12pm
If you are needing to use the foodbank, we want you to stay as safe as possible when visiting us. We also want to keep our volunteers safe and well. For this reason, we will be changing the way we operate, following Government & NHS advice. From now on we’ll be providing pre-prepared bags of food in exchange for the foodbank referral voucher you’ve been given by the agency who’s referred you.
So until the crisis has passed, this means:
- Food parcels will be pre-packed. This means we won’t be able to swap any items in your pre-packed food parcel.
- You will be asked to use sanitising gel on your hands when you arrive.
- We will need to restrict the number of clients in the Foodbank and therefore they may need to queue outside. We also ask that when you are in the Foodbank, please keep 2 metres apart from any other person present.
- You may be asked to collect your bag(s) yourself
- Sadly, we will not be serving snacks and drinks.
- Please don’t think us rude if you are asked to leave as quickly as possible. It will make room for another person and reduce the infection risk.
- Food supplies may become in short supply and food parcels may not look the same as they used to – please bear with us.
- Please be confident that we will continue to do all we can to support you during this time!
In the meantime, we need our local community to continue donating vital food supplies, particularly as our boxes at supermarkets are looking sparse, and many local churches have closed, as well as the schools. Many are regular donors.
While we haven’t run out of all items, there are certain items we’re running low on. Your support is vital at this time, so if you’re considering donating, can you look at our DONATE FOOD page for up to date information on what we need. Please bring any donations to the foodbank either during our opening times above or Monday evening 7.30-8.30pm and Thursday morning 10-11am when we will have volunteers to receive donations
You can donate food or make a financial donation by clicking HERE.
You can find out more about the Trussell Trust network’s response to coronavirus here and you can follow us on Facebook to stay up to date with what we are doing.
