A Visit To The Northampton Food Bank
DATE: 9TH SEPTEMBER
Do you know where your nearest foodbank is?
Northampton Food Bank
Last week was #NationalFoodBankDay, so I decided to find out where the Northampton foodbank was this is located at a great place in the heart of Northampton town.
The company that runs this bank is called ‘Restore Northampton’
Here are the contact details for this foodbank:
Instagram - @restorenpton
Facebook - @restorenpton
Twitter - @RestoreNpton
Website - Restore Northampton
Re: store Northampton is a charity run by Central Vineyard Church and supported by local people, to serve those in need within the town.
This is a nonprofit organization that runs from donations of food and money.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION FROM COMPANIES WEBSITE - Re: store Northampton's projects range from crisis support, providing food and necessities to those suffering from unforeseen economic hardship to longer-term support work in the form of sharing skills and giving emotional and practical support. We aim to give a ‘hand-up’ rather than just a ‘hand-out’ and seek to give individuals the opportunities to move forward into greater independence. These skills include growing produce for consumption, managing money, and cooking on a budget. All projects centre around ensuring those we are in contact with have their basic needs met.
While shooting at the foodbank I asked some set questions to the ladies that run this bank:
What can you tell me about the food bank in Northampton?
They are an independent foodbank run by Central Vinyard Church and they have been running for over 10 yrs.
The need and use of the food bank have increased since the beginning of COVID-19, as they have had to double the days that they give out food. This was more prominent at the start of the lockdown and the numbers of people were larger than in previous weeks or years, due to COVID-19.
Since the start of the lockdown, this food bank has given out over 1000 food parcels, which have fed about 2500 people.
To facilitate this increase, the food bank is giving out food parcels, with volunteers supporting and helping out. The volunteers are helping to make up the food parcels and support this bank so that people can visit at the door, within a safe distance to keep all parties safe from the virus.
The food parcels are distributed across the town, as other locations also provide a twice-a-week service like this one and this is at 42 Sheep Street. This means that the food bank is open more days throughout the week.
As we all need to wash and clean our own houses, we may forget the expense of these items. This foodbank gives each referral the option to choose any set wash or cleaning product that they may need, to be packed into their food parcel.
Food parcels are provided to people who have been referred so that they receive a 5 parcel rollover throughout the year. In each food parcel, there is enough food for 3 days. These bags are filled with non-perishable goods, as the location of the food bank has restricted facilities to offer fresh food.
The food bank staff do receive some fresh produce and this is passed on via the food parcel. The food bank staff also have an allotment project that they are working on to be able to provide fresh produce per food parcel.
Would you wish to be able to offer more fresh produce? Maybe even have other companies get involved to support the food bank.
The main issue that the food bank has is being able to store fresh food, so for now they will only use the produce from the allotment project to provide fresh food. Plus if they are not able to give out fresh food then the food is wasted. They have two domestic fridges and providing fresh food is not an option that they have done before. In the long term, the food bank would have to get set up differently if they decided to offer fresh products more frequently.
What other support do you give?
The ladies predict that the food parcel needs will continue to increase. Each person that visits the food bank has been referred and each time they visit the ladies do not just offer food, they offer a friendly face and an ear to listen to. Which is brilliant and needed for people during the lockdown period. The ladies start to understand the needs per person and get to know the people that collect the food parcels, which shows the care that these ladies and the volunteers offer the people collecting the parcels.
They offer money advice and support on how they can use their money more effectively. Before lockdown, the food bank provided other activities and projects to support people looking for a job and they have a support worker that chats and calls people when needed.
Here are my images, that show the variety of food products that the foodbank includes within a food parcel.
How can people support your food bank?
Here are four ways that you can support your local food bank:
Donate in cash via the link below
Volunteer
Sign-up to support
Donate via the supermarket donation trolly, which is located at Asda in Kingsthorpe & Sainsbury’s Town centre
SIGN UP
Due to the current virus, the food bank is not open to the public for food product donations, so if you would like to offer support to your local food bank or Northampton’s food bank.
Click this link to visit the donation page for this food bank & give your money, so that they can buy more food in bulk.
DONATE NOW AND HELP SUPPORT