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St Albans & District Foodbank

Trustees' Annual Report for the year ended 30 September 2021

Reference and administrative details

Charity name: St Albans & District Foodbank CIO Registered charity number: 1158917 Charity’s principal address: c / o 5 Browning Road Harpenden Herts AL5 4TS

Trustees

During the period ending 30 September 2021 the following were trustees:


Name	First Elected	Re Elected	Resigned

John Mulholland	07/11/2014	15/09/2020
Robert Smalley	27/10/2016	15/09/2020
Janet Lailey	27/06/2017	17/11/2020
Spike Charlwood	22/01/2019		11/05/2021
Beth Williams	19/09/2018	21/09/2021
Mark Pontin	17/03/2020
Stuart Miller	15/09/2020		21/09/2021
Farrukh Shaikh	17/11/2020

Professional advisors


Independent Examiner	Bankers

Elizabeth Needham Needham Accountancy Ltd Berkeley House, Barnet Road London Colney, Herts AL2 1BG	Barclays Bank Plc PO Box 104 St Albans Herts. AL1 3AN	CAF Bank Ltd 25 Kings Hill Avenue Kings Hill West Malling Kent, ME19 4JQ

1. Structure, Governance and Management

1.1 Governing document

St Albans & District Foodbank is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation. The only voting members are its charity trustees. The trustees adopted a constitution on 9th September 2014 in accordance with the “ foundation model ” published by the Charity Commission. The St Albans & District Foodbank achieved registered charitable status on 20th October 2014 and its’ registered charity number is 1158917.

1.2 Trustee selection and management

The charity is governed by a board of trustees selected because they strongly endorse the charitable objectives of the organisation. When selecting trustees, the charity aims to ensure there is a broad range of relevant skills and knowledge, while also aiming to reflect a more diverse spread of backgrounds across the St Albans District to help with informed decision making. Trustees are appointed after interviews with existing trustees, and under normal circumstances, visits to the organisation, to ensure they understand its vision and values.

The trustees meet approximately every 2 months to review performance and monitor the achievement of objectives. The Treasurer presents a financial monitoring statement to each meeting so that trustees can review income and expenditure.

1.3 Related Organisations

The St Albans & District Foodbank is affiliated to the Trussell Trust, a charity based in Salisbury, that assists churches and communities to open new foodbanks and supports existing foodbanks nationwide.

1.4 Management of risk

The trustees have adopted a range of policies in order to manage and minimise risk. These include policies covering inter alia, Health & Safety, Safeguarding and Lone Workers and a Risk Register is maintained to monitor compliance with these policies.

The Risk Register is regularly reviewed by a sub-group of the trustees and confirmed annually by all the trustees.

The trustees have in place systems of internal control that are designed to provide reasonable assurance against material mismanagement or loss. These include two signatories for all payments and a comprehensive insurance policy to ensure that insurable risks are covered.

2. Objectives, Aims and activities

2.1 Charitable Objectives

The St Albans & District Foodbank has as its objective the prevention or relief of poverty primarily in St Albans District and surrounding areas, in particular but not exclusively by providing emergency food supplies to individuals in need and/or charities, or other organisations working to prevent or relieve poverty. Nothing in this constitution shall authorise an application of the property of the CIO for the purposes which are not charitable.

2.2 Aims

Our primary aim is to alleviate poverty through the provision of food parcels and, when available, limited quantities of personal care (e.g., toiletries and toothpaste) and household items (toilet rolls, cleaning and laundry materials) to those in crisis. We do this in partnership with local agencies who refer clients in crisis to us. By signposting people to care agencies, advice services and other support agencies we aim to seek resolutions to their immediate crises, which are resulting in a need to use the Foodbank. Anyone in need can be referred to the Foodbank, regardless of their race or creed.

2.3 Objectives for the period

The main objective was to continue operating the Foodbank in the St Albans District area, to maintain a number of distribution points throughout the district and to build links with a broad range of local care agencies, such as Citizens Advice. These agencies are known as Referral Agencies and they can refer people in need of assistance to the foodbank.

2.4 Strategies for achieving the objectives.

Trustees adopted a series of strategies including:

Recruiting a pool of volunteers;
Utilising warehouse premises to accommodate the administrative and distribution operations of the Foodbank;
Maintaining a number of distribution centres which clients can visit to discuss their problems and exchange their vouchers for food parcels;
Recruiting and maintaining an appropriate number of Referral Agencies;
Building up sufficient funds to sustain the operation for at least the next twelve months; and
• Maintaining a working arrangement with the Open Door, Vineyard Church, Sopwell Community Trust and other charities who are also involved in the alleviation of poverty in St Albans so that we can support them with any excess food stocks that we accumulate.

2.5 How the foodbank works

Donations of food are received from a number of sources:
Individuals;
corporate organisations;
schools and churches, particularly at Easter, Harvest Festival and Christmas times; and
• permanent collection points in local supermarkets.
Donations of non-perishable food are weighed, checked for “ best before ” dates, sorted and stored by food type;
Food parcels are prepared at the warehouse, weighed and taken by van to the distribution centres before each session;
Clients in food crisis are issued with a St Albans & District Foodbank voucher by a recognised Referral Agencies; and
Clients bring their voucher to a foodbank distribution session where it is redeemed for an emergency parcel.

The contents of emergency parcels are selected by reference to Trussell Trust guidelines that aim to give clients a nutritionally balanced diet, providing sufficient food for 3 days.

2.6 Public Benefit

The primary public benefit of the foodbank is the immediate relief of a financial crisis being experienced by an individual or family. This is mainly achieved by providing parcels of nonperishable food, which can be used to create nutritionally-balanced meals for three days.

St Albans & District Foodbank relieves poverty, in particular hunger, but it also helps address the underlying causes by listening to clients’ needs and signposting them to additional support services that help address these issues. This assists in mitigating the difficulties arising from housing loss, mental health problems, family breakdown and other issues related to poverty. During the Covid-19 crisis the charity’s ability to offer additional support, as outlined above, has been significantly restricted due to the need to interact with all clients in a socially distanced manner.

3. ACHIEVEMENT AND PERFORMANCE

3.1 Summary of the period’s activities

The St Albans & District Foodbank continued operation throughout the year from premises generously provided to us on a temporary rent-free basis by Jarvis Group Ltd at 28-30 Coldharbour Lane, Harpenden

We operated 6 distribution centres from which food parcels are handed to clients:

1	Tuesdays	1:00 - 3:00pm	Christ Church,High Oaks,St Albans
2	Tuesdays	4:00 - 5:30pm	Cunninngham Hub Community Centre Cell Barmes Lane St Albans
3	Wednesdays	12:30– 2:30pm	ChristadelphianChurch Hall AbbottsAvenue St Albans
4	Thursdays	12:30 – 2:30pm	Hilldyke Community Centre, Hilldyke Road, Wheathampstead
5	Fridays	10:00 – 12:00	Caledon Community Centre Caledon Road London Colney
6	Fridays	1:00–3:00pm	Crabtree Church, CrabtreeLane,Harpenden

In addition, we provided food parcels to members of the Islamic community in the St Albans area in conjunction with the Sopwell Community Trust and to clients visiting the Vineyard Church in St Albans.

The COVID19 pandemic had a major impact on our operations as issues experienced in the latter half of 2020 continued to affect us during the year for example:

A significant change in our volunteer mix as those with health issues and the over 70s had to step back;
Reduced donations of certain food products;
Changed routines at the warehouse to ensure socially distanced operations;
Changed routines at the distribution centres to ensure socially distanced operations;
Pressures on deliveries from warehouse to distribution centres due to the increased demand for food parcels.

With the help of trustees and volunteers operations were maintained whilst the pressure on the relatively small van used for deliveries was eased, firstly by assistance provided by Emmaus, a local charity, who dedicated a large van and two companions to help with transport and secondly by a donation of a larger Citroen Dispatch van by West Herts Charity Trust.

We continued to provide a home delivery service to help those who could not attend a distribution centre, using drivers from Communities 1st and continued with revised packing sessions at the warehouse to match demand for food parcels. At the distribution centre sessions we also maintained our use of a socially distanced “quick in and out” approach with minimum handling of individual items of food.

Throughout the year we have supplemented shortages on donations of specific items by purchases from wholesalers using grants from St Albans District Council and financial donations. Local organisations such as Round Table and Lions, Corporates, local companies and private individuals maintained their support through financial and product donations. Finally, Easter, Harvest Festival and Christmas collections from schools and churches provided much needed supplies to help us through the year.

During the 12 months of operation to 30th September 2021 we distributed 10,211 emergency parcels including 4,926 parcels to help children.

There was a wide range of reasons causing these people to seek help, the largest being low income. The full break down of reasons are illustrated below:

Note the last two reasons are too small to show in the above chart.

As mentioned above during 2020-21 we provided 10,211 parcels compared to 7,801 in 2019-20. The chart below provides a breakdown of parcels provided for adults and children in each of the last four years.

This substantial increase was largely driven by the demand that began at the beginning of the coronavirus lockdown and has been further increased by the assistance given to the Sopwell Community Trust and Vineyard during the year.

3.2 Referral Agencies

The St Albans & District Foodbank provides food to people who come to us with a voucher issued by one of our Referral Agencies. These Agencies comprise professionals from organisations providing welfare and community support in the local area such as doctors, health visitors, social workers, Citizens Advice Bureau staff, schools, registered social landlords, local charities, the police and probation officers.

At the end of September 2021 there were 188 Referral Agencies “on our books”.

When these Agencies identify someone in crisis, they provide him/her with a foodbank voucher. The individual can obtain immediate assistance by bringing the voucher to one of our distribution centres and redeeming it for food. In some cases, individuals approach the foodbank directly. In such cases we normally seek to understand the individual’s circumstances and signpost opportunities for them to find support and then issue a voucher ourselves but suggest that in future the individual obtains a voucher from one of our Agencies. We do this so that we know the source of the individual’s crisis has been discussed with an appropriate organisation. Due to the need to maintain social distancing since the outbreak of the pandemic we have not been able to discuss the clients’ situation directly with them, but we intend to return to this model when the current crisis has passed.

In the year to 30 September 2021, 3,200 vouchers were issued and exchanged for food at the foodbank compared with 2,564 in the previous year. Some 30% of all vouchers were issued to single parent families.

3.3 Distribution of food

The table below summarises the sources and weight of food and other items provided to clients during the year. As shown, there was a net outflow of stock during the year.

Stock movements during year

Source/Destination	Incoming	Outgoing	Net

	kg	kg	kg

Donations received	68,864.1		68,864.1

Purchases	9,705.1		9,705.1

Distribution centres		48,648.5	-48,648.5

Home deliveries		6,933.8	-6,933.8

Emergency food boxes		89.2	-89.2

Sopwell Community trust		15,056.4	-15,056.4

Other charities		11,303.9	-11,303.9

Other Trussell Trust Foodbanks		1,350.5	-1,350.5

Non Trussell Trust Foodbanks		1,719.4	-1,719.4

Disposals out of date/damaged		768.0	-768.0

Other		205.1	-205.1

Total	78,569.2	86,074.8	-7,505.6

The provision of food to other charities and organisations is key to our charitable objective - the relief of poverty.

Such charities and organisations where provision of over 100kg include Azalea Women’s Refuge, Druglink, Emmaus, Feed, Hertfordshire Asian Women’s Association, Kaotic Angels (as part of a half term initiative to feed local children), Kings Pantry, Manna Foodbank, Oaklands College, Park Street Residents Association and the Stockwood Park Academy

There is also an important practical benefit in so doing: it enables the foodbank to make use of excess food before it goes out of date thereby minimizing waste and adverse environmental impact.

3.4 Sources of food and other items

The food and other household items that the Foodbank distributed came from a variety of sources such as regular collections from permanent collection points in various supermarkets around the area, donations by schools, churches and individuals and one-off corporate donations. In addition, during and following the lockdown there were substantial donations from range of corporate donors.

The sources of the incoming stock comprises:

3.5 Volunteers

This report refers to the important contribution made by funders, donors and supporters across the community. However, the key people who have turned the St Albans & District Foodbank into a working organisation delivering a service to the local community are our 120+ volunteers. They have organised the warehouse, packed food parcels, collected and transported food, staffed the office and dealt with clients. We have been extremely fortunate that so many new volunteers stepped forward during the last year. Without their additional help we would have found it impossible to continue running an uninterrupted service.

The trustees are extremely grateful for the commitment of all volunteers and the expertise and help that they bring to the organisation.

3.6 Staff & Trustees

Throughout the year Emma Dalton was employed as a part-time manager. Emma handed in her notice on 29 September[1] .

For some time, the Trustees have recognised the need to strengthen the overall leadership of the charity, to reduce its’ reliance on a relatively small number of individuals in managing its day-to-day operations and achieving its strategic goals. A recruitment process to appoint a Chief Executive Officer identified an excellent candidate who is due to commence work in February 2022.

Penny Crosswell was employed as a part time Community Outreach Manager commencing in February 2021. Penny has refreshed, updated and reinvigorated contacts with our Referral Agencies, assisted with grant applications and many of our day-to-day operations.

Trustees believe that a further position of Client Wellbeing Coordinator is also needed to allow greater and more focused assistance to be offered to clients in difficulty. This role is seen as key to helping clients find long term solutions to their needs, to avoid dependency on Foodbank provision & is complementary to the plan to facilitate third party specialist agencies such as Citizens Advice Bureau and MIND being present at distribution hubs to aid the signposting of help for clients

During the year Spike Charlwood and Stuart Miller stepped down from the board of trustees for personal reasons. The Trustees thank both Spike and Stuart for the valuable help they provided to the foodbank during their terms of office.

Trustees were delighted that Farrukh Shaikh joined the board during the year and that Janet Lailey and Beth Williams both agreed to continue on the board and were duly re-elected.

John Mulholland stepped down as Chair on 21 September 2021. John served as Chair for many years and devoted an extraordinary amount of his time to the day to day running of the foodbank. Without him the organisation would not be in the strong position in which it is today. All trustees are grateful for John’s extraordinary commitment and are equally grateful that he has indicated a willingness to continue as a trustee, manager of our warehouse operations and day to day contact for operational issues.

Mark Pontin was elected Chair on 21 September 2021.

Ms Dalton’s last day of employment was 29 October 2021

4. FINANCIAL REVIEW

4.1 Principal funding sources

In common with many other foodbanks, the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic saw an unprecedented wave of donations from individuals, churches, corporates and other organisations. As a result, our unrestricted income for the year amounted to £201,266. The sources of this income are shown below:

Individuals	£163,844.09	£163,844.09
Corporates	£	31,116.67
Charitable	£	4,180.61
Organisations
Interest	£	759.24
Schools	£	573.50
Crowdfunding	£	460.00
Churches	£	250.00
Advent Calendars	£	82.72

In addition to the above we received a number of restricted income grants and donations. The two most significant elements of this were:

£15,000 Strategic Grant from the Trusell Trust
£10,000 DEFRA Grant towards Covid-19 relief

4.2 Reserves policy

The trustees have been grappling with the problem of securing a long-term warehouse given that the facility in Coldharbour Lane, Harpenden was only available for use on a short term, short notice basis. The major difficulty is the very significant annual cost (probably about £45-50,000) of commercially renting a similar sized property to the existing warehouse.

The significant increase in our reserves would enable us to rent a property on commercial terms once the current arrangement ends but within a few years it would demand a very substantial and hard to achieve annual fundraising target as the reserves were steadily eroded.

In July 2020 trustees became aware of an opportunity to enter into an arrangement with Emmaus, another charitable organisation in St Albans, whereby the Foodbank would make a significant capital contribution from its reserves and undertake joint fundraising to build, inter-alia, a 250m[2] warehouse which it would be leased at a peppercorn rent for up to 25 years. Trustees agreed that this was an effective use of foodbank reserves as it would provide stability and eliminate a very significant risk to the ongoing existence of the foodbank.

Accordingly, a Memorandum of Understanding was concluded with Emmaus and professional consultants were appointed to prepare a planning application for a new warehouse for foodbank and offices/workshops for Emmaus. If successful, foodbank would expect to contribute £100,000 towards

the capital costs of the project (matched contribution by Emmaus) and both parties would engage in a joint fundraising initiative for the balance of capital costs.

Planning permission was granted on 24 June 2021[2] and fundraising activities commenced with the aid of a specialist advisor.

As at 30 September 2021, funding had not been secured and the major potential funder, National Lottery, had rejected the joint funding bid. In addition, Emmaus identified that it may have other priorities to address and at that time it was thus unlikely that the proposed build would be ready until late 2022. For this reason, another £75,000 was held to cover a short-term rent of a suitable property if required and to help with equipping the new building with suitable equipment.

4.3 Investment policy and objectives

The St Albans & District Foodbank does not have sufficient funds to invest in longer term investments. The Foodbank has therefore adopted a risk averse strategy to the investment of its funds. All funds are held in cash using only mainstream banks noting the levels of protection afforded via the FSA.

Funds surplus to day-to-day activities and long-term provision of warehouse space will instead be used to develop the services and assistance that can be offered to clients both directly and in conjunction with third party specialist agencies.

5. FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS

During the year the foodbank warehouse operated from temporary rent-free premises in Coldharbour Lane, Harpenden provided by Jarvis Group Ltd. We were advised that Jarvis were likely to require that we vacate these premises towards the end of 2021.

In view of the central role that the warehouse plays in the operation of the foodbank, the trustees have investigated various options throughout the year to provide ongoing warehouse facilities for the longer term, including the joint initiative with Emmaus for the construction of purpose-built premises noted above, as well as short term alternatives in the event that notice to leave Coldharbour Lane was given.

It remained difficult to find suitable affordable long-term warehouse premises and in view of the current favourable terms and suitability of the current premises it was agreed most sensible to commence a search for another relatively short-term location once we have received notice to vacate Coldharbour Lane[3] .

Signed on behalf of the Trustees

Mark Pontin

Date 25[th] January 2022

2 St Albans District Council planning ref 5/2021/0778

3 Notice to vacate Coldharbour Lane was given on 1 October 2021, effective 12 November 2021. Thanks to assistance from many quarters, not least Cantay Estates, new premises were identified in Redbourn and a 30 month lease was completed with occupation granted in early November 2021.

	Charity Name	Charity Name	Charity Name	No (if any)	No (if any)
	St Albans and District Foodbank			1158917
Date of document (if not year end) 31-Aug-21	Receipts andpayments accounts					CC16a
	For the period	Period start date		Period end date
	from	01/10/2020	To		30/09/2021
Section A Receipts and payments
	Unrestricted funds	Restricted funds	Endowment funds		Total funds	Last year
	to the nearest £	to the nearest £	to the nearest £		to the nearest £	to the nearest £
A1 Receipts
Donations and Other income	198,767	3,241	-		202,007	174,383
SADCgrant	-	-	-		-	6,000
Acts 435 Receipts	-	-	-		-	120
HFC Receipts		-	-		-	1,500
Trussell Trust warehousegrant		15,000			15,000
DEFRA Grant	-	10,000	-		10,000	0
Localgivingmatched funding grant		5,381	-		5,381	0
HCC Receipts	2,500	-	-		2,500	0
	-	-	-		-	0
*Total receipts*	201,266.8	33,621.1	0		234,888	182,003
A2 Asset and investment sales- nil
A3 Payments
Stationery	614	-			614	1,128
General	3,804	-			3,804	3,023
Advertising and misc	295	-			295	200
Phone	331	-			331	487
Items for distribution to clients	2,143	16,581			18,724	10,355
Acts 435 Disbursements	-	-			-	-
HCF Disbursements	-	458			458	2,398
Warehouse	1,245	-			1,245	167
Rent	-	-			-	-
Business Rates	1,983	-			1,983
Insurance	1,187	-			1,187	2,508
Travel and transport	3,972	-			3,972	7,022
Franchise fee	-				-	360
Employment Costs	29,440	2,907			32,347	19,626
Bank charges	166	-			166	120
*Sub total*	45,180	19,946	0		65,126	47,394
A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table)
Equipment	140	860			1,000	6,442
Van contribution					0
*Sub total*	140	860	0		1,000	6,442

*Totalpayments*	45,320	20,806	0		66,126	53,836

*Net of receipts/(payments)*	155,947	12,815	0		168,762	128,167
A5 Transfers between funds	0	0	0		0	0
A6 Cash funds last year end	176,302	5,328	0		181,630	53,463
*Cash funds thisyear end*	332,249	18,143	0		350,392	181,630

CCXX R1 accounts (SS) 1 24/04/2017

Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period	Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period	Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period	Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
Categories	Details	Unrestricted funds	Restricted funds	Endowment funds
		to nearest £	to nearest £	to nearest £
B1 Cash funds	CAF Bank Ltd	332,249	18,143	0
	*Total cash funds*	332,249	18,143	0
	(agree balances with receipts and payments account(s))	OK	OK	OK
		Unrestricted funds	Restricted funds	Endowment funds
	Details	to nearest £	to nearest £	to nearest £
B2 Other monetary assets






	Details	Fund to which asset belongs	Cost (optional)	Current value (optional)
B3 Investment assets





	Details	Fund to which asset belongs	Cost (optional)	Current value (optional)
B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use	Phone	restricted/genera ~~l~~	0
	Van	restricted / ~~eneral~~	0
	Warehouse equipment	~~g~~ restricted/genera ~~l~~	0
	Foodbank branch equipment	restricted/genera ~~l~~	0
	IT and computing equipment	restricted/genera ~~l~~	0

	Details	Fund to which liability relates	Amount due (optional)	When due (optional)
B5 Liabilities





Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees	Signature	Print Name		Date of approval
		Mark Pontin		25/01/2022

CCXX R2 accounts (SS) 2 24/04/2017

Independent examiner's report on the accounts

Section A Independent Examiner’s Report

Report to the trustees/ Charity Name St Albans and District Foodbank CIO members of On accounts for the year 30[th] September 2021 Charity no 1158917 ended (if any) Set out on pages 13 - 14 (remember to include the page numbers of additional sheets) I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 30[th] September 2021. Responsibilities and As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the basis of report accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).

I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and 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 I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have examiner's statement come to my attention in connection with the examination (other than that disclosed below *) which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:

the accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act; or
the accounts did not accord with the accounting records; or
the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a ‘true and fair’ view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination.

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.

Date: 10/03/2022

Signed: Name: Elizabeth Needham Relevant professional FFA (Institute of Financial Accountants) qualification(s) or body (if any):

Oct 2018

IER

Address:

Needham Accountancy Ltd Berkeley House, Barnet Road London Colney, Herts AL2 1BG

Section B Disclosure

Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight material matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners).

Give here brief details of None any items that the examiner wishes to disclose .

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