This has been a challenging year for the Foodbank. We provided 2,885 parcels of food and household basics such as toiletries, nappies and pet food, 1,813 adult parcels and 1,072 for children. The previous year’s figures were 1,591 parcels for adults and 929 for children, so demand grew by 14.48%.
We cover Cobham, Oxshott, Stoke D’Abernon, Downside, the Horsleys and Effingham. Everyone who finds themselves unable to buy food needs to obtain a voucher from one of the people or agencies whom we have appointed to verify each client’s need. We provide food without question to anyone who presents our voucher. Our records show that inadequate income, debt, various benefit-related problems (such as the five-week hiatus when Universal Credit is first provided) and sickness are the main reasons.
Our biggest challenge this year has been because our wonderful supporters at Cobham Methodist Church, where we operated our distribution centre every Friday since December 2013, amalgamated with the United Reformed Church in Cobham, to form the United Church.
The Methodist Church was sold, and we moved our distribution to the United Church, out of the centre of the village in Stoke Road, at the end of August.
There were significant costs associated with this, chiefly in order to provide suitable storage at the new venue, and our distribution day had to change to Tuesday, still from midday till 1.30pm.
We have tried to make the new distribution centre accessible, by hiring a minibus and driver from Elmbridge Community Transport and offering a free transfer from the bus stop opposite Waitrose in Cobham to the United Church every ten minutes. This is not wholly satisfactory, as people still have to get home from the bus stop, often with around 40kgs of food. Therefore only a small number of people have used the bus, and many more have relied on lifts from friends.
At the end of 2018 we replaced our Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van with a similar, but newer, van, and we have benefitted from the greater economy and uprated equipment of the newer vehicle.
We have continued to use a warehouse at Brook Willow Farm, Leatherhead, which has been variously almost empty and bursting with over 6 tonnes of food. We wish that the landlord would make up the access road, which is often potholed and muddy. Our dedicated warehouse team receive the food and other items donated as it is delivered to the warehouse by our van, weigh, mark the expiry dates and sort it on the shelves. Then they make up bags, following a nutritionist’s prescription, containing items sufficient to provide a balanced diet for a person for a week. If we run out of prescribed items, we buy them in.
The van collects the pre-prepared bags of food on Tuesday morning and takes it to the distribution centre. There each week a team of specially-trained volunteers sets up a ‘pop-up café’ and distributes to clients as they present their vouchers. Clients are invited to have some refreshment while they wait for their food, and are ‘signposted’ to literature describing possible ways to improve their situations, such as the work of Christians Against Poverty. There is usually fresh bread, generously donated by The Bakery in Cobham, and fresh fruit and vegetables, donated by Waitrose under the Fare Share scheme.
Our van crew go round the various places where there are collecting bins – all the local churches, plus Waitrose and the small Sainsbury’s on Cobham High Street – three times a week. We also benefit from ad hoc collections by churches, schools and community groups for harvest festival and ‘reverse Advent’, together with collections outside Waitrose every few weeks. We are always amazed by how generous everyone is, and extend sincere thanks.
We are well-supported financially, by the two St Andrew’s churches in Oxshott and Cobham, by St Mary’s Stoke D’Abernon, St Martin’s East Horsley, by various local businesses including Downs Solicitors and Richard Stewart Williams (Aston Martin) Ltd. We also have received generous support from Elmbridge Borough Council from their Community Infrastructure Levy and otherwise, from Waitrose through their Community Matters ‘green tiddlywink’ scheme, and from Trussell Trust from their Asda funding, and a number of generous individuals. We are very grateful to all who have given to the Foodbank.
Hugh Bryant
19th January 2020
