2024-09-30-accounts - Batley Food Bank

This text was generated using OCR and may contain errors. Check the original PDF to see the document submitted to the regulator.

Batley Food Bank

Charity number 1157520

Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 30 September 2024

Batley Food Bank

Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 30 September 2024

Contents	Page
Trustees' report	2 to 4
Examiner's report	5
Receipts and payments account	6
Statement of assets and liabilities	7
Notes to the accounts	8 to 10

Prepared by West Yorkshire Community Accountancy Service CIO

Batley Food Bank

Trustees' report for the year ended 30 September 2024

Reference and administrative details of the charity, its trustees and advisors

The trustees during the financial year and up to and including the date the report was approved were: Name Position Dates Catherine Pinder Chair Leah Phillips Treasurer Appointed 23 November 2023 Graeme Simpson Secretary Appointed 15 July 2024 Carol Lightbody Safeguarding Lead Appointed 23 November 2023 Helen Wilde Aafaq Butt Resigned 3 October 2024 Clare Black Resigned 4 December 2024 Tracey Race Resigned 31 May 2024 Caroline Jones Resigned 3 May 2024 Gina Harding Resigned 31 May 2024 Sally Wallace Jones Resigned 24 October 2024 Charity number 1157520 Registered in England and Wales

Charity number 1157520 Registered and principal address Bankers Admiral House Lloyds Bank plc Co-operative Bank Blakeridge Lane 75 Commercial Street 47 Low Lane Batley Batley Batley WF17 8PD WF17 5EQ WF17 9EY

Independent examiner Rhys North ACA West Yorkshire Community Accountancy Service CIO Stringer House 34 Lupton Street Leeds LS10 2QW

Structure, governance and management

The charity is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) foundation formed on 18 June 2014 and governed by a constitution.

Method of recruitment and appointment of trustees

The trustees of the charity are appointed by the members at the AGM.

Batley Food Bank

Trustees' report (continued) for the year ended 30 September 2024

Objectives and activities

The charity's objects

To alleviate the effects of food poverty and specifically to create and operate a food bank for the people of Batley and its environs.

The charity's main activities

Operating a food bank providing emergency food aid to people resident in an area of the North Kirklees local authority area covering Batley, Heckmondwike, Cleckheaton, Liversedge, Birstall and Birkenshaw, along with parts of Dewsbury including Mirfield.

Public benefit statement

In setting our objectives and planning our activities our Trustees have given serious consideration to the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit and in particular alleviating the effects of food poverty in our local area.

Achievements and performance

The number of people supported by Batley Food Bank has increased over the years and we now support thousands of people each year.

Batley Food Bank meets a real need by supplementing statutory and voluntary provision for those in food poverty within the North Kirklees communities.

During 2024 we continued to provide a consistent, high-quality food bank service to the growing number of people needing crisis support in North Kirklees, despite the continuing financial strains.

Between 1[st] October 2023 and 30[th] September 2024, we received 3,190 referrals, feeding 6,798 people, providing a total of 142,758 meals. Each week we dealt with, on average 10 new clients who had not used our food bank before.

Throughout this time, we have continued to offer a home delivery service, for our most vulnerable clients, alongside clients being able to visit our premises to collect their parcels. We have maintained our opening hours of 11:30am to 3:30pm each weekday.

There have been discussions over the year about the financial viability of Batley Food Bank and whether we should move to a food pantry or food cooperative model, to allow the work to continue. Our referral system allows us to ensure that clients are genuinely in need when they come to us. Many of them are at crisis point for some time before reaching out for help. Even a small charge or change in system would put these vulnerable people at more risk. The referral system also allows us to ensure our clients are receiving support in other areas such as debt management, substance abuse, employment advice, which they would not receive if our current practices changed.

We have continued to work with Fareshare and Neighbourly to obtain food items which are surplus and would otherwise go to landfill. This allows us to reduce some of our food costs, as well as reducing waste.

In October 2023, we received some additional funding from the Government Household Support Fund to allow us to provide “Christmas Dinner” to those who applied or were referred. We were able to provide 84 hampers containing all the ingredients for a Christmas Meal, along with extra treats such as cakes, sweets and chocolates thanks to this funding and donations of items to the food bank.

In addition to our standard referrals, we contacted schools to ask them to refer their most vulnerable families for assistance during the school six-week holidays. This ensured families were not struggling to obtain a referral during this time and we were able to provide support to 12 families who did not fall into the category of other support during this period.

We are extremely grateful to our staff, volunteers and trustees, who worked incredibly hard over the year to ensure our service was maintained during some very challenging and uncertain periods. They also assisted with several fund-raising events, awareness events and supermarket food collections which helped to boost our finances and food stock.

Batley Food Bank

Trustees' report (continued) for the year ended 30 September 2024

Achievements and performance (continued)

We are proud of our work over the last year and thankful for the support of all our donors including individuals, organisations, small local businesses and supermarkets, as well as those businesses who allowed their staff the volunteer as part of their working days.

Financial review

The net payments for the year were £16,472, including net payments of £1,890 on unrestricted funds and net payments of £14,582 on restricted funds.

Reserves policy

The charity's free reserves, at the year end were £20,644.

The aim is to have enough money in reserve to meet the expenses of the food bank for 3 months. This includes rent, wages and all other essential expenses. The current reserves target amount is set at £40,000. This would allow the staff to be given notice and enable an orderly winding up should the charity need to close.

The trustees recognise that as at 30 September 2024 actual reserves were below their target level of reserves. In response to this the trustees approved a number of actions regarding cost reduction and increasing income, including:

Reduction of variety of food offered to clients.
Reduction of non-food provision.
Reduction of repeat food parcels through greater engagement with the referees.
Tighter controls on referral sources.
Challenging repeat attendees without a referral.
Drive for donations.

The impact of these measures is now being experienced and latest financial reports show an increase in unrestricted funds. The trustees will continue to closely monitor the charity's finances.

Approved by the board of trustees on 27/6/2025

Catherine Pinder (Trustee)

Batley Food Bank

Independent examiner's report to the trustees of Batley Food Bank

I report to the charity trustees on my examination of the accounts of the CIO for the year ended 30 September 2024, which are set out on pages 6 to 10.

Responsibilities and basis of report

As the charity trustees of the CIO you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 ('the Act').

I report in respect of my examination of the CIO's accounts as carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act. In carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.

Independent examiner's statement

I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:

1 accounting records were not kept in respect of the charity as required by section 130 of the Charities Act; 2 the accounts do not accord with those records.

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Rhys North ACA

30/6/2025

West Yorkshire Community Accountancy Service CIO

Stringer House 34 Lupton Street Leeds LS10 2QW

Batley Food Bank

Receipts and payments account for the year ended 30 September 2024

Notes 2024 Unrestricted funds £ Receipts Grants and donations (2) 37,052 Fundraising 1,115 Total receipts 38,167 Payments Salaries NI and pensions 20,395 Food and consumables stock 8,131 Telephone 584 Insurance 550 Stationery 1,013 Equipment 306 Subscriptions - IT services 560 Other costs - service users 41 Vehicle leasing - Volunteer expenses 880 Professional fees 1,814 Rent and rates 3,125 Other expenses 948 Fundraising costs 510 Accountancy and independent examination 1,200 Total payments 40,057 Net payments (1,890) Fund balances brought forward 22,534 Fund balances carried forward (3) 20,644	2024 Restricted funds £ 91,359 - 91,359 23,757 73,083 301 - - - - - - - - - 8,800 - - - 105,941 (14,582) 19,515 4,933	2024 Total funds £ 128,411 1,115 129,526 44,152 81,214 885 550 1,013 306 - 560 41 - 880 1,814 11,925 948 510 1,200 145,998 (16,472) 42,049 25,577	2023 Total funds £ 129,981 543 130,524 38,992 82,070 823 512 989 132 108 529 231 1,872 744 1,453 9,600 156 444 809 139,464 (8,940) 50,989 42,049

Batley Food Bank

Statement of assets and liabilities

as at 30 September 2024 2024 Unrestricted £ Cash funds Cash at bank 20,564 Cash in hand 80 Total cash funds 20,644 Debtors and prepayments Debtors Prepayments Assets retained for the charity's own use Catering fridge and two upright fridges Three chest freezers and one upright freezer Computer tower, keyboard and monitor Two printers Shelving units Two office desks Henry vacuum cleaner Shredder Liabilities Accruals Taxation and social security Other creditors	2024 Restricted £ 4,933 - 4,933	2024 Total £ 25,497 80 25,577 2024 £ 595 92 687 2024 £ 1,368 152 56 1,576	2023 Total £ 42,001 48 42,049

The financial statements were approved by the board of trustees on 27/6/2025

Catherine Pinder (Trustee)

Batley Food Bank

Notes to the accounts

for the year ended 30 September 2024

1 Accounting policies

Basis of accounting

The trustees have taken advantage of section 133 of the Charities Act 2011 and have prepared the accounts on a receipts and payments basis.

There has been no change to the accounting policies since last year.

No changes have been made to the accounts for previous years.

Taxation

As a charity the organisation benefits from rates relief and is generally exempt from income tax and capital gains tax but not from VAT. Irrecoverable VAT is included in the cost of those items to which it

Fund accounting

Unrestricted funds are available for use at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of the general objectives of the charity.

Restricted funds are subjected to restrictions on their expenditure imposed by the donor or through the terms of an appeal.

Further explanation of the nature and purpose of each fund is included in the notes to the accounts.

Batley Food Bank

Notes to the accounts continued

for the year ended 30 September 2024

2 Grants and donations Arnold Clark Community Fund ASDA Foundation Batley & Birstall Community Fund Birstall Rotary Club (Luddites) Kirklees Council National Lottery Community Fund Neighbourly fund One Community - Mayors Fund One Community Foundation Sir George Martin Trust The Brelms Trust The Foyle Foundation The Trusthouse Charitable Foundation West Yorkshire Hardship Fund Yorkshire Building Society Albert Hunt Trust Freemasonry & Lieutenancies Partnership Fund Huddersfield Town Foundation Julia & Hans Rausing Trust Morrisons Foundation Other donations 3 Restricted funds Balance b/f £ Kirklees Local Welfare Provision 18,895 Morrisons Community Fund 591 Trusthouse Charitable Fund - Birstall Rotary Club Fund - National Lottery Community Fund - Kirklees Ward Budgets - The Brelms Trust - Neighbourly 29 One Community - Mayors Fund - Batley & Birstall Community Fund - West Yorkshire Hardship Fund - Asda Cost of Living Fund - Sir George Martin Fund - Kirklees Local Welfare Provision - One Community Kirklees - Neighbourly Fund - Sainsbury's - Kirklees Council HSF5 Funding - Yorkshire Building Society - The Foyle Foundation - 19,515	2024 Unrestricted funds £ 2,500 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 34,552 37,052 Incoming £ - - 6,768 500 16,040 7,000 4,968 - 8,000 5,000 4,219 800 2,500 5,040 1,500 500 22,024 1,500 5,000 91,359	2024 Restricted funds £ - 800 5,000 500 34,064 16,040 500 8,000 1,500 2,500 4,968 5,000 6,768 4,219 1,500 - - - - - - 91,359 Outgoing £ 18,895 591 6,768 500 16,040 7,000 4,968 29 8,000 5,000 3,986 800 2,500 5,040 1,500 500 22,024 - 1,800 105,941	2024 Total funds £ 2,500 800 5,000 500 34,064 16,040 500 8,000 1,500 2,500 4,968 5,000 6,768 4,219 1,500 - - - - - 34,552 128,411 Transfers £ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -	2023 Total funds £ - - 5,000 - 39,916 - 2,000 - - - - - - - - 2,000 2,675 1,000 11,280 3,000 63,110 129,981 Balance c/f £ - - - - - - - - - - 233 - - - - - - 1,500 3,200 4,933

For fund descriptions see next page

Batley Food Bank

Notes to the accounts continued

for the year ended 30 September 2024

3 Restricted funds (continued)

Fund name

Kirklees Local Welfare Provision Morrisons Community Fund Trusthouse Charitable Fund Birstall Rotary Club Fund National Lottery Community Fund Kirklees Ward Budgets The Brelms Trust Neighbourly One Community - Mayors Fund Batley & Birstall Community Fund West Yorkshire Hardship Fund Asda Cost of Living Fund Sir George Martin Fund Kirklees Local Welfare Provision One Community Kirklees Neighbourly Fund - Sainsbury's Kirklees Council HSF5 Funding Yorkshire Building Society The Foyle Foundation

Purpose of restriction

Towards food, toiletries and Christmas hampers Towards fresh food and dairy products Towards wages and rent Towards food Towards wages and rent Towards food and toiletries Towards rent and drivers Towards food, Christmas hampers and delivery costs Towards food and toiletries Towards food and toiletries Towards fresh food and toiletries Towards food and toiletries Towards rent, drivers, telephone, food and toiletries Towards food and toiletries Towards drivers wages Towards food and toiletries Towards food and toiletries Towards food and toiletries Towards rent

4 Related party transactions

Trustee expenses

No trustee received any expenses during this year or the previous year.

Trustee remuneration and benefits

No trustee received any remuneration or benefit during this or the previous year.

Other related party transactions A Wilde Husband of trustee General assistance as an employee Name of trustee or related party Relationship to charity Description of transaction	2024 £ 3,093 3,093	2023 £ 2,730 2,730