2025-03-31-accounts

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Registered number: 08852728 Charity number: 1162185

THE BOW FOODBANK LIMITED

(A company limited by guarantee)

UNAUDITED

TRUSTEES' REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

THE BOW FOODBANK LIMITED

(A company limited by guarantee)

	Page
Reference and administrative details of the charity, its Trustees and advisers	1
Chairman's statement	2 - 3
Trustees' report	4 - 19
Independent examiner's report	20
Statement of financial activities	21
Balance sheet	22
Statement of cash flows	23
Notes to the financial statements	24 - 33

THE BOW FOODBANK LIMITED

(A company limited by guarantee)

REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS OF THE CHARITY, ITS TRUSTEES AND ADVISERS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

Trustees	Lynn Stone
	Dr Irum Ali
	Vincent Allilaire
	Meena Chavda(appointed 18 April 2024)
	Jagmohan Singh Bhakar
	Matthew Gill(appointed 18 April 2024)
	Steve Gilvin,Chair
	Kristin Konschnik(resigned as CompanySecretary18 April 2024)
	Emma Singh(resigned as Treasurer 8 September 2024)
	Latika Shah
Company registered number 08852728 Charity registered number 1162185 Registered office Bow Foodbank Bow Community Hall 1 William Place London E3 5ED Company secretary Matthew Gill Accountants RPG Crouch Chapman LLP Chartered Accountants 40 Gracechurch Street London EC3V 0BT Bankers Barclays Bank Plc 56/58 The Mall London E15 1XJ CAF Bank 25 Kings Hill Avenue Kings Hill West Malling ME19 4TA Independent Examiner Anthony Epton Goldwins Chartered Accountants and registered auditors 75 Maygrove Road West Hampstead London NW6 2EG

Page 1

THE BOW FOODBANK LIMITED

(A company limited by guarantee)

CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

The chairman presents his statement for the year.

Bow Foodbank has seen another year of major changes as we continue to provide food aid and support to our neighbours in Tower Hamlets facing food poverty.

This year we made our long-awaited move to new premises in William Place, near the Roman Road market. The work with Tower Hamlets Council to get the premises at Bow Community Hall ready for the move has taken well over a year before the move finally took place in August 2024. The move has enabled the Foodbank to open for more days and for more sessions and to provide a wider range of support to help people find a way out of poverty. Now that we can be open for longer, we have been able to reduce the time that people have had to wait to receive food, and we hope the experience of our guests overall has been improved.

We would like to thank the Bethnal Green Methodist Church and Raynes School for hosting the Foodbank during 2023 and 2024. Their support was vital in enabling us to keep going and provide for local people in need during a difficult period whilst we secured and prepared Bow Community Hall for us to move in.

We continue to look at ways to make using the Foodbank a more dignified experience for people as we know how hard it can be for anyone to ask for help for themselves and their families. This has included introducing an innovative option for ‘click and collect,’ enabling guests to book a collection of food online including more choice over the items we provide.

Since our move to William Place, we have seen the number of households seeking our support each week fluctuate. As our guests have become used to our new location and new session times, the number of households we are supporting each week has settled to around 400, and with other adults and children in the household this means we are supporting around 1200 people each week. At Bow Foodbank we remain committed to our open access approach, with no referral needed. We know that people who access our support already face considerable barriers before accessing food support and help at a time of crisis in their lives.

We have further developed and deepened our work with partner organisations including Spotlight, Felix Project, First Love Foundation and Lawstop. These partnerships enable us to provide better support for more people and are key to our mission of enabling people to move out of poverty and food insecurity.

Bow Foodbank together with our partner food aid organisations in the borough established a Tower Hamlets Food Poverty network to share good practice, and advocate for the sector in Tower Hamlets. We joined the national organisation, Feeding Britain , in 2024 to provide access to up-to-date policy information and hear about good practice and innovation from networks in other areas. This year, the network helped to secure the restoration of funding for Tower Hamlets Food Hub. So we were delighted to see Tower Hamlets Council confirm funding for the Food Hub for 2025-26 and look forward to working with colleagues in the Council, particularly the Anti-Poverty and Public Health teams, in working together to support local people in need of food support.

I would like to add my thanks to Rev. Tim May from St. Marys Chuch for his time as a Trustee of the Foodbank. Tim joined the trustees back in 2020 and helped guide the Foodbank through the difficult period of providing support during the Covid-19 pandemic. We wish Tim well in his move to a new parish in North London.

A huge thank you as always to all of the many people and organisations who have donated to the Foodbank this year. We can only provide the support to local people that we do because of your generosity - whether donations of food or money it all helps Bow Foodbank to be open every week of the year and to provide a consistent offer to all our guests.

Page 2

THE BOW FOODBANK LIMITED

(A company limited by guarantee)

TRUSTEES‘ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

The Trustees present their Annual Report, together with the audited financial statements of the charity for the year from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025.

The Annual Report serves the purpose of both a Trustees’ Report and a Directors’ Report under company law. The Trustees confirm that the Annual Report and financial statements of the charity comply with the current statutory requirements, the requirements of the charity’s governing documents and the provisions of the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) applicable to the charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standards applicable in the UK and Republic or of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2019).

Since the charity qualifies as small under section 382 of the Companies Act 2006, the strategic report required of medium and large companies under the Companies Act 2006 (Strategic Report and Directors’ Report) Regulations 2013 has been omitted.

Objectives and Activities

The objects of Bow Foodbank are the relief of poverty in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets through the provision of food and essential items to people in crisis.

Though it remains a brilliant place to live and work, Tower Hamlets is in one of the most deprived communities in the country, with the highest rates of pensioner and child poverty and where more households than anywhere else are solely dependent on benefits.

Almost 50% of children live in poverty across the three parliamentary constituencies which cover Tower Hamlets, among the highest levels in the UK (End Child Poverty Local Child Poverty Statistics, 2025)
44% of older people live in low-income households. This is the highest proportion in England (Tower Hamlets Poverty Review, 2021)
Tower Hamlets is in the 20 local areas in the country with the highest rates of destitution (Tower Hamlets Poverty Review, 2021)

This means there is a lot of work to do to achieve our objectives and as we’ve established since opening, there is not a one size fits all solution to the problem of poverty in Tower Hamlets.

Bow Foodbank started the year operating out of an old school site in Bethnal Green twice a week. This site was shared with several other organisations and projects. While the size of the space was ideal for the foodbank, the lack of autonomy over space and operating hours limited the quality of the service that could be offered to guests. Having identified a site back in the heart of Bow, the trustees’ focus was to ensure that this move would enable the organisation to fulfil its objectives and to continue to offer the dignified support central to the culture of the foodbank.

In preparing for the move to Bow the trustees together with the senior team carried out a consultation, redefining the organisations Mission, Purpose, Culture and Values (found at the end of this report). These would provide the guiding principles for reshaping the operating model of the foodbank as it moved into a new space and ensured an ongoing focus on maximising the positive impact on guests and volunteers alike as we reshaped our work.

In consultation with our guests and guided by our newly defined values of Dignity, Empowerment, Collaboration and Belonging, Bow Foodbank set itself some practical goals to achieve in the move to a new site. Guests told us that three things were important to them:

We respect our guests by lessening the time they must queue up for food. Guests would frequently have to wait for over an hour before they got their food. This was hard for those with children or who work.
Consistency and sustainability are important. People need to know what food they will leave with so they can plan.
People want good quality food that will last past the day of the visit.

Our guests were keen to access nonjudgmental support, supported by the familiar faces of the foodbank. Housing issues were common, and people reported having bad experiences in asking for

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THE BOW FOODBANK LIMITED

(A company limited by guarantee)

TRUSTEES‘ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

help through other more formal-feeling services. In response to what our guests told us, and using our values as guiding principles we set out our practical goals for the move as follows:

1- To significantly reduce the queuing time of our guests.
2- To ensure all guests were offered fresh fruit and vegetables or dairy products.
3- To increase the support offered to guests to help them move away from poverty and measure the impact of this work.
4- To increase the sustainability of the Foodbank by working with partners across the borough so Bow Foodbank was not the only options for guests.
5- To continue to be a place where volunteers can use their passions and talents to benefit their community.

The rest of this report tells the story of how we progressed these goals within the year, as well as some unexpected paths we would need to take along the way.

Reducing Queueing Time:

Having one permanent site allows for greater flexibility in provision, including opening for longer hours. This allows staff and volunteers to spend more time understanding guests’ needs, as well as reducing the time guests would have to queue. Bow Foodbank went from being open to the public for ten hours a week over two days, to being open to the public for seventeen hours over four days. This helped reduce the time guests had to spend waiting in queues by simply being able to spread out footfall.

Despite the additional hours we were open we found guests would come in greater numbers at the times they were used to, resulting in queues still forming at the start of session times. To be good neighbours to other facilities nearby, and to further improve the service to guests we wanted to find a way to better control the times that people could use our service.

Using the skills of some of our volunteers who work in on-line retail, Bow Foodbank was able to go further and set up an on-line ordering and booking system: “Click and Collect,’ that would allow people the flexibility to come in at a chosen time and collect food they had been able to select on-line. By December 2024 a third of all our visits had moved over to this new system which received fantastic – feedback from the majority of guests especially those who were juggling children or shift work with attending the foodbank. The staff team had some concerns that using an online system would lessen the contact with guests and make it less likely we could work with them on the wider issues, such as benefits. However what we found was quite the opposite. The registration volunteers who were processing orders (remotely) had more time and space to manage accounts, warning people when their allocation of visits was due to end. Many of our guests would also message via email or the order form to say they would like help with issues, finding this easier than a face-to-face conversation. This may have been due to having English as a second language and using IT to support translation (increasing understanding between them and the foodbank), or as some of our younger guests are far more confident in the digital space than opening up when face to face.

Staff and Trustees are delighted with the overall outcome of cutting queuing, as images of people queuing for hours for a basic need does not fit with our ethos of treating our guests with dignity. However, the journey to no queue was not quite as simple as we first anticipated, and while many benefitted, some found the new processes to achieve this a barrier to full engagement. Many of our pensioners and homeless community were digitally excluded, lacking the confidence or resources to place an online order. This group were required to come in person to place their order, so while they were always provided with food, we were unable to offer them the same level of choice.

When back in the school, we had the advantage of a lot of space – this provided us with lots of ways to offer guests choice over the food they received. Now with limited space, the only safe way we could achieve this was through packing to order via our ‘Click and Collect’ system. This created a disparity between the food that was given in our general session, and that we could give via ‘Click and Collect.’ This is an area we want to address in the coming year to ensure those that want more choices are not disadvantaged.

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THE BOW FOODBANK LIMITED

(A company limited by guarantee)

TRUSTEES‘ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

Spreading our times and introducing ‘Click and Collect’ were two actions taken to help reduce queues. The move also had other impacts that affected queuing times. Bow Foodbank saw a decrease in visits in the months following the move that continued through the rest of the year.

The table below shows the difference in visits month on month in 24/25.

Overall, we were 36% down on the number of visits over the entire year. From the table it is possible to see this decline in numbers started prior to the move but continued more sharply post move (in August).

The reasons for this reduction are as follows:

We had a sudden increase of numbers in the previous year due to policy changes around international students and dependents. The reversing of this rule resulted in seeing lower numbers in 2024/5. This demographic accounted for around 24% of our guests in 2023/24 compared to 8% this year.

Due to the increase in numbers in 2023/4, the trustees wanted to ensure that the charity remained sustainable for its target group of guests and therefore focus on Tower Hamlets residents. We only had capacity to assist particularly vulnerable groups from outside Tower Hamlets (asylum seekers, homeless and those fleeing domestic violence). In changing the rules around the number of times those outside Tower Hamlets could use the foodbank, we successfully reduced the numbers visiting from outside the local authority area. This rule change was intended to safeguard Bow Foodbank’s long-term sustainability for our target guests of Tower Hamlets residents.

On top of this rule change, our change of location means we are further away from a DLR or Tube station making travel between local authorities harder. This seems to have contributed to the reduction in out-of-borough guests. These visits reduced from 25% of our total to 11%. With many of those still using the service from out of the area falling into one of the high vulnerability groups we chose to continue supporting them.

In preparation for the move, the foodbank worked with all its guests over a nine-week period to find alternative provision close to their homes. We expected to be closed for two weeks with a further four week reduction in service to allow us to set up the new space. We did not want anyone to be left without alternative options so ensured guests were given information about alternatives. It is possible that guests have remained with alternate provision due to ease of use, or finding provision to better meet their needs.

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THE BOW FOODBANK LIMITED

(A company limited by guarantee)

TRUSTEES‘ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

Looking at our heat maps we must acknowledge that some guests from Tower Hamlets have also found the move of site difficult - having lost people from the wards of Bethnal Green and St Peter’s – both close to the old site at the school. While this was of some concern, there are alternative providers in a similar location.

Please See Heat Maps Below:

Sustainability and Partnerships:

While sustainability has been a core issue, staff and trustees remain mindful that sustainability should not come at the cost of the mission and objectives. In response to the reducing numbers, the senior team took the opportunity to identify new ways of delivering against our objectives, without expecting people to travel to the new site.

Reviewing our information management data and heat maps we identified food deserts locally, wanting to ensure there was no part of the borough that was not covered. Geographical areas of concern were identified as: the Aberfeldy Estate, Blackwell and Cubitt Town and localised parts Whitechapel. These areas had low levels of food provision combined with high index of multiple deprivation levels. The team wanted to try and address need in these specific areas. This concern combined with ongoing concerns over the lack of food aid for vulnerable young people resulted in the team designing a new delivery partnership.

Towards the end of the year partnerships were set up with two young people’s charities, one based in Blackwall and the other on the Aberfeldy. These charities were selected as they targeted more vulnerable young people, those leaving care, those not in education employment or training. These charities also have extremely strong support services. Bow Foodbank would provide a set number of

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THE BOW FOODBANK LIMITED

(A company limited by guarantee)

TRUSTEES‘ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

food bags weekly to be given out by support workers who would have a good understanding of the needs of the young person and their household. Unlike the bags given out at the Bow Foodbank centre, the youth bags would not be limited to 12 visits in a 12month period – the aim being to support them to stay in education and continue accessing their support workers and the crucial support they offer. To make this work possible, Bow Foodbank needed to set up a volunteer driver team to deliver these bags weekly.

We have also hosted a group of the young people to volunteer at the Foodbank emphasising our values that all those, we support have skills and abilities that can benefit their communities. We are all neighbours supporting neighbours.

While this pilot was new at the end of the period it was of huge value to the young people who received the services. With 123 packages provided in just a few weeks, the benefits were already clear.

One young person, F (13), told her youth worker that her mum had recently lost her job. The youth worker connected them to the foodbank. F’s mum has now been collecting bags for the past five weeks, and described the impact:

“Thank you very much. These ration provisions are very helpful, especially at the end of the month.”

Developing this work will become a focus in the next year.

We thank Buzzacott and the The Buzzacott Stuart Defries Memorial Fund for providing the seed funding for this work and enabling us to get the project off the ground.

Wider Partnerships:

Bow Foodbank knows that it cannot meet all the needs of our guests, and this means we aim to work in positive partnerships to help them access other organisations that can support guests to thrive. This renewed focus on collaboration and partnership goes further than the development of the youth pathway. Bow Foodbank also invested in partnerships in other areas, including corporate relationships, the local food aid network and well as advice and welfare services for guests.

Corporate Partnerships:

Corporate partnerships became a core focus this year. With continued fundraising pressures, Bow Foodbank decided to remodel a staff role to solely focus on corporate partnerships. In developing this role, we were able to increase our corporate fundraising efforts by 45%, taking donations from around £120,000 to £175,000. This post was funded by Tides Foundation via BlackRock – having this post funded enabled us to develop this work with no risk to the organisation.

Within the work of this role, we were able to develop Charity of the Year partnerships with Osit (Office Space in Town), RGA and continue our relationships with USS and Collier Bristow. These on-going relationships are of huge importance to the organisation as teams from these companies, as well as other corporate partners, also contributed to our individual giving through organising a number of sponsored events and bake sales – often match funded by the businesses themselves. This helped to maintain individual giving at a steady level in a challenging environment due to the cost-of-living crisis.

Corporate partners are far more to Bow Foodbank than just a funding stream. Corporate teams contributed 3840.9 volunteer hours this year, actively helping to keep the foodbank running, at a value of £51,904 (at London living wage). The number of corporate volunteers increased from around 600 the previous year to 815 this year. This increase has been important as we have expanded our opening hour, making it harder for our local volunteers to come along, especially if they are working.

As part of our organisational culture, we have strong focus on neighbours supporting neighbours, and our corporate teams are very much a part of this. Our aim with corporate volunteers is that the time they spend with us at the foodbank helps them to develop roots in the communities where they work, enables them to use their silks to benefit the wider community and enables them to develop a deeper

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THE BOW FOODBANK LIMITED

(A company limited by guarantee)

TRUSTEES‘ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

understanding of how poverty affects those around them through actively connecting with our guests and community volunteers.

One of the ways we have challenged our corporate teams to understand some of the more complex - impacts of food insecurity has been through asking them to take part in our food parcel challenge individual volunteers live off a foodbank package for three days. What they report back isn’t that they leave the challenge hungry, but that the level of effort and planning required to live off basics can be time consuming and restrictive. Not being able to ‘just pop out’ for a sandwich or invite people for food can have a profound impact on how people live day to day and how they feel connected to others. We hope our work encourages collaboration and understanding between different groups and helps to challenge some of the judgments made about the types of people who might need food aid.

Food Aid Network:

Thanks to a grant from the Fishmongers Company, we were able to take on a procurement and partnership manager. This role has a focus on building partnerships between all the food aid organisations within Tower Hamlets.

In preparing for the move, the large number of organisations offering food aid came into sharp focus. Most of these are small scale, with food aid added onto other services. As a large provider we wanted to ensure we helped support the full ecosystem of food support in Tower Hamlets. This was important for two key reasons. Firstly Bow Foodbank knew it would need to have a period of transition to make the move from the school to a permanent site, so our guests would be reliant on these smaller services for this period. More significantly, without proper co-ordination across the network no one knew how people used combinations of these providers to meet household need. Bow Foodbank set out to support these smaller services with procurement options and co-ordinated information sharing to help ensure the network could withstand fluctuations in demand and offer a quality service to all Tower Hamlets residents.

As described in the Chair’s report Bow Foodbank’s original aim with the food network was to share learning around sustainable procurement. However, this work widened to sharing best practice in areas such as advice and guidance, supported by the national organisation Feeding Britain. The network faced some significant challenges due to potential funding cuts that would have significantly interrupted the work of some providers. During this period Bow foodbank provided 1.5 tonnes of food to the wider network to support key providers. As a collaboration we were able to work constructively with the local authority ensure the restoration of this funding and identify ways the food network could compliment key strategies with the council’s anti-poverty team and public health.

Having widened this work to co-ordinating the network, Bow Foodbank received further funding from the Wakefield Trust to extend the scope of our cross-borough work. We remain committed to finding joint procurement solutions but face significant challenges around storage and transportation that we hope to address soon.

Support Services:

The most significant development has been bringing on a Guest Experience and Partnership manager who as well as co-ordinating the youth project was hired to develop our ability to refer guests to the right support. He is also building up a network of referral partners to empower guests to move away from the sources of their food insecurity. Like many strands of Bow Foodbank’s work the foundations of this were laid initially by a passionate volunteer who saw and responded to a need.

In taking on a full-time role Bow Foodbank has been able to build on those foundations offering a threetiered approach to support services.

At the lowest level we offer a marketplace approach where other poverty and health focused organisations can offer their services to our guests during our open session. This year we have hosted dental students, early start, diabetes checks and shine energy advisors. The aim of this level of support

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THE BOW FOODBANK LIMITED

(A company limited by guarantee)

TRUSTEES` REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

is to increase our guests’ knowledge of local support services and promote services that correlate to poverty indicators.

At the second level we host the Bromley-by-Bow Centre Energy advice team. We also set up partnerships and micro grants, offering easy access support focused on a single issue. We thank St James the Less church in Bethnal Green for providing micro grants to our guests that have covered items such as prescription costs, cost of glasses and travel bursaries for individuals to attend university.

At the top level the Guest Experience and Procurement Manager works directly with complex cases, referring them into multiple organisations, supporting them in the medium term to unravel a number of issues. We have two significant referral partners at this level, First Love Foundation – dealing with four complex cases a week, and Law Stop who use legal aid to support individuals with complex housing issues. We thank our partners for offering our guests ongoing and holistic services, sometimes offering support beyond six months of one-to-one work. Not all guests qualify for these services, and we are aiming to identify other appropriate services and offer ongoing support to access these.

Below is a summary of the outcomes of this work:

Outcome for First Love Foundation cases:

Over six months, 43 cases – 16 closed during the period. £119,000 worth of annual benefit increases across the 16 closed cases. On top of the £119,000, other outcomes include preventing eviction, benefits re-instated, sourcing supported accommodation, and seven safeguarding referrals.

18% of those referred were Bengali Women – while this is the biggest group of referrals it would be expected that this would be closer to 30% to match population or 43% to match visit percentage. Bengali women were also the least likely group to get a positive outcome from a referral, with many disengaging from the service or unable to provide information or paperwork required to complete the process. More work needs to go into understanding how to better support this group into positive outcomes.

Law Stop:

Our partnership with Law Stop started in January 2025, and most cases are expected to take six months to resolve. We referred 10 cases in total .

Referrals in this area do not track against our general profile - with men and white men specifically being overrepresented within these referrals, as are those with disabilities. This is due to the nature of the work taking on more referrals from those that are registered homeless or inappropriately housed due to disability.

Easy access:

Over three months we saw 41 cases of which 18 received £2,733 worth of energy vouchers. Four received support on Universal Credit.

These easy access support cases match more closely our typical demographic profile both in terms of referrals and outcomes. This is in part due to the nature of the delivery of this work, being instant access, not requiring appointment or access to large amounts of paperwork or evidence. The same is true of the internal case work.

Internal Case Work: (over six months) - 170 positive outcome

29 referrals for alternative food support in Tower Hamlets

6 Domestic Abuse referrals

13 out of borough food bank referrals

63 energy advice referrals

9 Healthy Start referrals

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THE BOW FOODBANK LIMITED

(A company limited by guarantee)

TRUSTEES` REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

4 immigration advice referrals

9 Baby bank referrals

6 people found housing

19 supported around immigration

1 immigration status challenged (providing access to £15,410 worth of benefits annually)

11 micro grants distributed

Now having a full-time member of staff to manage our referrals means we can have a far wider impact for our guests. We hope to broaden this work going forward and include our volunteers in helping to signpost people to the support they need.

To achieve this the foodbank has committed to further training for this worker to enable them to supervise volunteers. We are working on creating systems to better track the social and financial value of this work and hope in future to be able to show how the foodbank has become a point information, and non-stigmatising advice for many in the community.

We have identified a number of areas where we hope to build up better partnerships as they match some needs of our guests that are poorly resourced locally including mental health support and health screening as well as immigration advice.

Quality of food:

Taking the feedback from our guests, part of our aim for the year was to increase the level of fresh food that guests could access. It is important here to draw attention to the fact while this was a priority to many guests, it is not the case for all, due to a lack of refrigeration and cooking facilities. So, in making positive changes across the board, it is possible that changes could negatively impact other vulnerable groups. That being said, for those who can store and use fresh items, it became a priority to increase the level of fresh produce to support balanced diets.

With help from the Felix Project, Bow Foodbank went from ordering 500 portions of fresh fruit and vegetables a week, to having these donated by Felix. This both helped Bow Foodbank to reduce the food costs of the organisation as well as increased the variety of what was offered from basic fruit and veg to include dairy products, salads and much more. In the main this has large upsides for both the organisations and guests, but it is worth noting that for some, the unpredictability and unfamiliarity of the produce caused concern.

In the future we hope to improve how we can distribute this donated food to best meet the needs of those who want the variety and choice as well as those who need predictability and consistency.

One clear upside of the food donated by Felix is the wider environmental impact, most of the produce comes direct from farms, or would go to waste part of insufficient food supply chains. Together with Felix we have repurposed 66 tonnes of food that would have otherwise gone to waste.

Celebrating our volunteers:

As ever we are incredibly grateful to all our volunteers without whom we would not be able to run the service. This year marked a significant period of change for Bow Foodbank and there was some nervousness about what this would mean for our established group of 350 community volunteers, some of whom had been volunteering at the same session for over 10 years!

To help us manage this change we decided a new volunteer platform was required – to better help us understand the motivation and satisfaction of our volunteers and helping us to keep them with us as we moved location. While we knew that not all volunteers would make the transition the role the volunteers play in being a neighbour and friendly face is core to our vision and values, so maintaining a good proportion of these would be critical.

Page 11

THE BOW FOODBANK LIMITED

(A company limited by guarantee)

TRUSTEES‘ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

In moving to a smaller premises and being open for longer hours we knew we would require fewer – people per shift, and that the times and days of shifts would need to change due to logistical challenges. We could only provide an estimate of the number of hours of volunteering that would be required and we knew there may be reduction in shifts that existed outside of working hours. We therefore expected our volunteering demographic would change and we would need to provide new types of volunteering to keep people engaged.

Due to the move, and a national trend in volunteering declining post-covid, our core group of 350 volunteer reduced to around 250. This was in part due to us not taking on any new volunteers for five months around the move concentrating on embedding our current volunteers into new ways of working, thus not replacing people as part of our normal attrition rate. Our best estimate is that we lost around 50 volunteers due to the move itself – many of whom continue to support the foodbank financially, attend social events or make the occasional ‘guest appearance’ when holidays allow.

The table below shows the number of community volunteer hours per month. Applying the London Living Wage, the equivalent value of these volunteer hours is £119,800. This was down from £128,000 the previous year – due to close down periods in August and September and over Christmas, lessening the hours available to volunteer. It is possible to see in the table below the move from the Three Rings platform to our new service - Volunteero. As volunteer time was counted in hours in Three Rings, while in Volunteero volunteers’ book in and out, this gives a more accurate time count.

Table 2- Community volunteer hours and financial value

After the site move the foodbank effectively had 28% fewer local volunteers covering 28% less available hours – with any back fill being provided by corporate volunteers who are available during the daytime.

We are immensely grateful for those who made this transition and filled in gaps where required, helping to ensure we could continue to run every session safely and with a warm welcome for our guests. We are equally grateful for all of those who gave time in the past and thankful for the warm wishes given as we stepped into the next phase of the foodbank’s evolution.

Going forward Bow Foodbank will look to create more volunteering opportunities to re-engage with those who can only offer out of hours support or bespoke skills-based volunteering. The team is working on several remote volunteering opportunities including click and collect management, admin, driving teams and outreach.

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THE BOW FOODBANK LIMITED

(A company limited by guarantee)

TRUSTEES` REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

The move itself provided one such bespoke volunteering opportunity with one of our long-term community volunteers overseeing our refurbishment plan, managing our contractors and making sure our deadlines were met so we could move on time. He was very much the hero of the hour (but he wouldn’t want us to say that!).

We wanted to diversify the knowledge of volunteers to bring in a deeper level of understanding of advice and guidance, training eight volunteers in the processes they would need to go through to triage guests into wider support. We also increased the level of knowledge amongst the volunteers of the type of support available locally to residents.

In introducing the new volunteering platform, we were able to record more information about volunteer voice – their opinions about why they want to volunteer and how they find the experience. You will see from their answers that volunteers value the opportunities that volunteering provides them to build roots, shoots and connections. Finding and building a sense of community, developing relationships and using and building their skills to make a difference:

53% of volunteers volunteer to help out their community.

*all volunteers answer this question.

Volunteers can also choose to give us other information about their experiences. Volunteer experiences seem to be mainly positive.

100% of volunteers agree or strongly agree they build skills through volunteering.

100% of volunteers say that their volunteering helps them to feel connected to their community.

We continue to encourage volunteers to give us feedback and have found it beneficial to have a system that allows us to ‘take the temperature’ amongst the volunteers and respond to their feedback. At their request we have reinstated volunteer newsletters to improve communication as well as evaluate our training programmes and increase volunteer input on safeguarding and food safety.

Summary Statistics:

During the past financial year, Bow Foodbank provided 21,064 individual parcels and 12,306 children’s parcels . Across the year, we supported 4,189 unique guests in total and 9,630 people in their households . On average, each guest visited just over five times in the year, meaning Bow Foodbank was not only a place of crisis support but also a consistent safety net when families needed it most.

Bow Foodbank supported 496 pensioners , 4,999 children , and 9,630 working-aged people and their households during the year. In addition to children’s parcels, the new Youth Bag programme supported 123 young people directly , ensuring they stayed connected to vital services.

While the majority of families used the foodbank for less than six months, reflecting short-term crises such as job loss or delays in benefits, a smaller but significant group remained reliant for one to four

Page 13

THE BOW FOODBANK LIMITED

(A company limited by guarantee)

TRUSTEES` REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

years. This shows both the scale of immediate need in Tower Hamlets and the deeper, ongoing struggles some households face without other safety nets.

Of the parcels distributed, 3,313 went to asylum seekers , 224 to those experiencing domestic violence , and 1,169 to people reporting homelessness – groups for whom food insecurity is often most acute. These are households with few other options for support, making Bow Foodbank a lifeline.

The total commercial value of the food distributed by Bow Foodbank was ~£620,000 , with a weight of almost 185 tonnes – equivalent to the weight of a fully loaded Boeing 747 . Taken together, this represents the equivalent of more than 440,000 meals.

Bow Foodbank received £199,124 of donated food and spent £224,156 on food supplies, as compared to £199,990 of donated food in financial year 2023/2024 and a food spend of £443,510.

A snapshot of the client group at Bow Foodbank

During this financial year, Bow Foodbank registered 2,061 new guests . Unlike many foodbanks, Bow Foodbank does not require referral - guests self-declare their reasons for accessing support. Many are in receipt of benefits, but these are often insufficient to cover monthly household bills.

Ethnic diversity of our guests

The table below shows the ethnic breakdown of Bow Foodbank guests

The number of guests in our category “Indian and British Indian” reduced by around 60% this year, linked to changes in visa rules affecting international students and their dependants. While some students continue to access support, the large influx we saw in the previous year has not continued. In addition, this category has likely reduced owing to our rule changes for out-of-borough provision.
We also saw a reduction in White European guests , particularly Ukrainians, whose numbers were highest at the start of the war.
There were small increases in Persian, Arabic, and Turkish guests , possibly owing to increased instability in the region. However, unlike Ukraine, communities from Gaza have not had routes to safe passage, meaning we have not yet seen a significant increase locally.

Bangladeshi guests remain our largest group, make up 30% of our foodbank population, 43% of our visits and 34% of the Tower Hamlets community. Our next biggest group, White British, make up 11% of our population, 12% of our visits and 22% of the Tower Hamlets community. These proportions remain stable against previous years. This over and under representation of particular ethnic groups illustrates that not all communities experience food insecurity in the same way and their needs around food aid differ.

There have been significant increases in all our Black and Hispanic groups, but this has not translated to increase overall number of visits. With fewer visits per guest coming from these ethnic backgrounds, we suspect this may be because we have limited access for those outside Tower Hamlets, with neighbouring boroughs having higher proportions of Black and Hispanic communities.

Gender and parental status

Gender and parental status strongly influence foodbank use. Across all ethnic groups, women are more likely than men to access support :

2,265 female guests vs 1,828 male guests this year.

Women also access support slightly more frequently.

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THE BOW FOODBANK LIMITED

(A company limited by guarantee)

TRUSTEES‘ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

The bar graph shows that Bengali families with children are the single largest group , making up about one-third of weekly visits. The top four demographic groups are:

Bangladeshi women with children
Bangladeshi men with children
Bangladeshi women without children
Bangladeshi men without children

White women with and without children also appear in the top ten groups, but white men do not. Notably, white women with children are twice as likely to use the foodbank as those without.

Comparing the levels of usage to those accessing wider support services, it is clear that more work needs to be done to increase the accessibility of wider support services by our Bengali guests and in particular, Bengali women. We want to ensure we are able to tackle poverty at its source for all those who are experiencing it.

At the last Census in 2019, nationally 26% of Bangladeshis were shown to be living the top 10% of economically deprived communities and were the second highest demographic group shown to be living in communities with the highest levels of multiple deprivation. This includes high scores in poor access to health, poor living environment, barriers to housing and services, increased crime rates and barriers to education and training.

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THE BOW FOODBANK LIMITED

(A company limited by guarantee)

TRUSTEES‘ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

Bow Foodbank believes that if we want to tackle poverty, we need to proactively tackle these issues. However, as we work to increase people’s access to quality support, we are starting to encounter some of the explicit and hidden barriers to achieving outcomes for some of our groups. Language barriers, and lack of experience in education and work are easy barriers to identify. Hidden barriers, such as community or family expectations, poor experiences of accessing support previously and potential systemic racism can all prevent individuals from accessing or fully utilising the support on offer. We aim to continue to identify and find solutions to these barriers, both hidden and transparent, as we seek to offer the strongest possible routes away from food insecurity and poverty.

For our female guests, of many backgrounds, we have sometimes found a hidden barrier to support. As they take up traditional female roles in the households and don’t hold or routinely deal with their own DWP records or the joint claim with their partner. This prevents this group from independently seeking advice and support.

One way in which Bow Foodbank has supported those in the deepest levels of need has been to work with Feeding Britain and the Child Poverty Network to campaign on issues such as the two-child benefit limit - which our data show holds our guests in poverty.

Fundraising activities and income generation – information or fundraising practices.

Bow Foodbank have used two professional fundraisers to support its grant and trust fundraising and online fundraising campaigns, with an outlay in this financial year of £32,400. The charity has not received any fundraising complaints from its donors or supporters.

Financial Review

Going Concern

Through successful fundraising, and by successfully controlling the levels of guests coming from outside the borough, Bow Foodbank has been able to control its costs and remain sustainable. After a number of years of shocks that have significantly increased the numbers of guests attending Bow Foodbank (the Covid 19 Pandemic, Cost of Living Crisis, Home for Ukraine, and changes to student dependents visas), the trustees take the view that Bow Foodbank should hold enough reserves to anticipate future demand increases. This caution seems particularly prudent when considering the continued pressures and competition on both personal giving and grant fundraising.

After making appropriate enquiries within the charity, the trustees have a reasonable expectation that the charity has adequate resources to continue for the foreseeable future. For this reason, the trustees continue to adopt the going concern basis in preparing the financial statements. Further details regarding the position of going concern can be found in the Accounting Policies.

Reserves Policy

The Board of Trustees examined the level of reserves appropriate to the charity, having regard to the financial risks. The Board concluded that an appropriate reserves policy should be based on holding unrestricted reserves equivalent of six months of operating costs (including staff cost) in reserves to meet unexpected events, such as a significant loss of funding and/or donation. A significant part of the food we distribute is donated to us. There is a risk that this level of support could reduce, as such the budget and reserves policy is based on total costs that would be incurred should these donated items need to be purchased. In the year to 31 March 2025 our total unrestricted costs were £559,269 and therefore our targeted reserves should be within ££279,634. Unrestricted reserves at 31 March 2025 were £416,809. The charity has a bank balance of £483,445, other assets (stock and debtors) totaling £29,908 and creditors of £21,945. At 31 March 2024, we had total unrestricted reserves of £431,181.

The Trustees consider it prudent to maintain reserves above the target level of £279,634 in light of ongoing economic and operational uncertainties. Fundraising income has become increasingly difficult to secure, while inflation continues to drive up the cost of purchasing food. A substantial proportion of fresh produce is donated by a single organization, Felix. Any change to this arrangement would require the charity to purchase additional supplies at short notice. Furthermore, external factors such as shifts

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THE BOW FOODBANK LIMITED

(A company limited by guarantee)

TRUSTEES‘ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

in asylum and immigration policy, the arrival of international students, and wider economic pressures can result in sudden fluctuations in demand for our services. As the charity’s policy is not to turn anyone away, maintaining a higher level of reserves provides financial resilience and ensures continuity of service delivery during periods of volatility.

Income

Our total income for the year ended 31 March 2025 was £781,754 (2024: £887,257).

We are grateful to our volunteers, individual donors, government bodies, larger trusts and foundations, corporate funding partners, the organizers of fundraising events for their financial donations; and to local businesses and individuals for donating food.

Expenditure

Our expenditure this year was £830,628 (2024: 894,264), represented by food costs at £187,074 (2024: £443,510) and other costs of £643,554 (2024: £450,754).

The increase in other costs alongside a reduction in food expenditure reflects the charity’s strategic investment in strengthening both operational efficiency and long-term impact. Expanding the Operations Manager’s role to oversee procurement processes, has translated into better value for money and reducing overall food costs. In addition, new staff role introduced to support guests in addressing the underlying causes of food insecurity—helping individuals access appropriate benefits and financial assistance. This proactive approach has led to a measurable reduction in the number of guests relying on food support, aligning with the charity’s mission to move people out of food poverty rather than create ongoing dependence.

Future Plans

In this Annual Report we have been able to report more stable guest numbers. In past years demand for the foodbank’s services have spiked suddenly in response to international events and local and national policy decisions. Going forward Bow Foodbank intends to maintain reserves that will allow us to respond to any future spikes in demand due to policy change. This cautiousness needs to be balanced with ensuring we are finding ways to ensure we are meeting need in Tower Hamlets.

To achieve this Bow Foodbank plans to increase the level of outreach activities to ensure all who need to know about us do. We will also continue to support other providers in the borough – and we aim to develop this work to ensure there is a strong understanding of the need across the borough as well as to share best practice and logistical solutions. Bow Foodbank has also found that working in partnership – for example through our youth bags - allows us to control or increase the numbers of people we serve while targeting specific groups with established need. The trustees will review the principles of how we set up the partnership so we can make clear and informed choices to create the strongest impact locally.

Bow Foodbank has a strong track record of following local need and we intend to continue this as we move forward. In our referrals and case work this will mean finding new partners who specialise in the areas that are requested by our guests and continuing to monitor this as the population and their related needs change.

We also want to use the skills of our volunteers to build resilient communities – especially when this matches local need. At this time, we have a baby feeding expert in our volunteer team, and there is

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THE BOW FOODBANK LIMITED

(A company limited by guarantee)

TRUSTEES` REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

growing concern locally around the increasing levels of baby formula theft from shops. We hope to work with public health experts locally to find a solution to this specific problem.

We also want to address the issue of digital exclusion – ensuring all our guests getting the same level of choice. This may be through introducing a shop-based model – or through working on digital skills.

The charity wants to further invest in its volunteer team by offering them training and to broaden their ability to triage and sign-post guests to additional resources to improve outcomes.

While it has taken longer than expected to fully feel at home at our new site, we remain determined to offer the best possible service to our guests, and to continue to provide meaningful ways for our volunteers to build resilient communities.

Structure, governance and management

Constitution

The Bow Foodbank Limited was registered as a private company limited by guarantee on 20 January 2014 and is governed by a revised Memorandum and Articles of Association dated 3 March 2015. The Bow Foodbank Limited was registered as a charitable company in England and Wales on 15 June 2015. In the event of the company being wound up, each member must contribute a sum not exceeding £10. The trustees are the members of the company.

Methods of appointment or election of trustees

The management of the charity is the responsibility of the Trustees, who are elected and co-opted under the terms of the Memorandum and Articles of Association. As of 31 March 2025, there were ten Trustees.

The Trustees meet between four and six times per year, with more frequent meetings scheduled to monitor operational activities and manage resources effectively. There is a Management Committee, comprised of several Trustees, who met much more frequently, as required, to ensure the charity delivered its services to guests through its team of staff and volunteers.

Organisation structure and decision-making policies

In 2024-5 we established a Service Model working group and Trustees took up lead roles to support staff in delivering services effectively. We adopted new articles of association in 2024-5.

Policies adopted for the induction and training of Trustees

New Trustees are inducted through receipt of relevant Charity Commission material, a copy of the Memorandum and Articles of Association and key policies relating to management, finance, strategy, decision-making, safeguarding and risk. New Trustees are also supported by the chair and other Trustees during and after their induction.

Pay policy for key management personnel

The Trustees of the charity are considered to be key management personnel and are not remunerated for their roles in this capacity.

The Trustees consider the Trustees and the Executive Director comprise the key management personnel of the charity in charge of directing and controlling, running and operating the Trust on a dayto-day basis.

Page 18

THE BOW FOODBANK LIMITED

(A company limited by guarantee)

INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

I report on the charity trustees on my examination of the accounts of The Bow Foodbank Limited for the year ended 31 March 2025.

Responsibilities and basis of report

As the charity’s trustees of the Company (and also its directors for the purposes of company law) you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 (‘the 2006 Act’).

Having satisfied myself that the accounts of the Company are not required to be audited under Part 16 of the 2006 Act and are eligible for independent examination, I report in respect of my examination of your charity’s accounts as carried out under section 145 of the Charities Act 2011 (‘the 2011 Act’). In carrying out my examination I have followed the Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5) (b) of the 2011 Act.

Independent examiner’s statement

Since the Company’s gross income exceeded £250,000, I confirm that I am qualified to undertake the examination because I am a member of the ICAEW, which is one of the listed bodies.

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

accounting records were not kept in respect of the Company as required by section 386 of the 2006 Act; or
the accounts do not accord with those records; or
the accounts do not comply with the accounting requirements of section 396 of the 2006 Act 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; or
the accounts have not been prepared in accordance with the methods and principles of the Statement of Recommended Practice for accounting and reporting by charities applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102).

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.

Anthony Epton BA FCA CTA FCIE Goldwins Chartered accountants 75 Maygrove Road West Hampstead London NW6 2EG

12 November 2025

Page 20

THE BOW FOODBANK LIMITED Statement of financial activities

(incorporating an income and expenditure account)

For the year ended 31 March 2025

Note Income from: Grants and Donations 4 Investment income 5 Total income Expenditure on: Raising funds 6 Charitable activities 6 Total expenditure Transfers between funds Net movement in funds Reconciliation of funds: Total funds brought forward Total funds carried forward Net (expenditure)/income / for the year	Unrestricted Funds £ 525,138 9,021 534,159 32,400 526,869 559,269 10,738 (14,372) 431,181 416,809 (25,110)	Restricted Funds £ 247,595 - 247,595 - 271,359 271,359 (10,738) (34,502) 115,545 81,043 (23,764)	2025 Total £ 772,733 9,021 781,754 32,400 798,228 830,628 - (48,874) 546,726 497,852 (48,874)	2024 Total £ 881,729 5,528
				887,257
				9,366 884,898
				894,264
				- (7,007)
				(7,007) 553,733
				546,726

All of the above results are derived from continuing activities. There were no other recognised gains or losses other than those stated above. The attached notes form part of these financial statements.

Page 21

THE BOW FOODBANK LIMITED Statement of Cash Flows For the year ended 31 March 2025

Note 2025 £ Cash flows from investing activities: Interest/ rent/ dividends from investments 9,021 Sale / (purchase) of fixed assets (4,482) Sale /(purchase) of investments - Cash provided by investing activities Change in cash and cash equivalents in the year Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the year Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the year Net cash provided by operating activities	Note 2025 £ Cash flows from investing activities: Interest/ rent/ dividends from investments 9,021 Sale / (purchase) of fixed assets (4,482) Sale /(purchase) of investments - Cash provided by investing activities Change in cash and cash equivalents in the year Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the year Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the year Net cash provided by operating activities	2025 £ (22,633) 4,539	2024 £ 5,528 (5,139) -	2024 £ (3,964) 389

		(18,094) 501,539		(3,575) 505,114
		483,445		501,539

Page 23

THE BOW FOODBANK LIMITED Notes to the financial statements For the year ended 31 March 2025

1 Accounting policies

a) Basis of preparation

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the Charities SORP (FRS 102) Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2019), the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) and the Companies Act 2006 and give a true and fair view of the charity’s financial affairs.. The trustees confirm their explicit and unreserved compliance with the aforementioned legislation.

The Bow Foodbank Limited meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS 102. Assets and liabilities are initially recognised at historical cost or transaction value unless otherwise stated in the relevant accounting policy.

The financial statements have been prepared in GBP and all amounts have been rounded to the nearest £.

b) Going concern

During the year, the charity’s unrestricted reserves decreased by £14,372 to £416,809 (2024: unrestricted reserves levels stood at £431,181). As in prior years, a large percentage of this is held as cash at bank and is therefore highly liquid. The trustees are of the opinion that the charity has sufficient reserves to maintain its underlying operations and therefore can be considered a going concern for the immediate future.

c) Income

All income is recognised once the charity has entitlement to the income, it is probable that the income will be received and the amount of income receivable can be measured reliably.

Gifts in kind donated for distribution are included at valuation and recognised as income when they are distributed to the projects.

Income tax recoverable in relation to donations received under Gift Aid or deeds of covenant is recognised at the time of the donation.

Income tax recoverable in relation to investment income is recognised at the time the investment income is receivable.

d) Expenditure

Expenditure is recognised once there is a legal or constructive obligation to transfer economic benefit to a third party, it is probable that a transfer of economic benefits will be required in settlement and the amount of the obligation can be measured reliably. Expenditure is classified by activity. The costs of each activity are made up of the total of direct costs and shared costs, including support costs involved in undertaking each activity. Direct costs attributable to a single activity are allocated directly to that activity. Shared costs which contribute to more than one activity and support costs which are not attributable to a single activity are apportioned between those activities on a basis consistent with the use of resources. Central staff costs are allocated on the basis of time spent, and depreciation charges allocated on the portion of the asset’s use.

Expenditure on charitable activities is incurred on directly undertaking the activities which further the charity’s objectives, as well as any associated support costs.

All expenditure is inclusive of irrecoverable VAT.

e) Interest receivable

Interest on funds held on deposit is included when receivable and the amount can be measured reliably by the charity; this is normally upon notification of the interest paid or payable by the institution with whom the funds are deposited.

f) Gift Aid

In the case of a Gift Aid payment made within the Group, income is accrued when the payment is payable to the parent charity under a legal obligation. Measurement is at the fair value receivable, which will normally be the transaction value.

Where the right to receive Gift Aid has been established, the amount receivable is recognised as investment income in the Statement of financial activities.

g) Taxation

The charity is considered to pass the tests set out in Paragraph 1 Schedule 6 of the Finance Act 2010 and therefore it meets the definition of a charitable company for UK corporation tax purposes. Accordingly, the charity is potentially exempt from taxation in respect of income or capital gains received within categories covered by Chapter 3 Part 11 of the Corporation Tax Act 2010 or Section 256 of the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992, to the extent that such income or gains are applied exclusively to charitable purposes.

Page 24

THE BOW FOODBANK LIMITED Notes to the financial statements For the year ended 31 March 2025

1 Accounting policies (continued)

h) Tangible fixed assets and depreciation

Tangible fixed assets costing £NIL or more are capitalised and recognised when future economic benefits are probable and the cost or value of the asset can be measured reliably.

Tangible fixed assets are initially recognised at cost. After recognition, under the cost model, tangible fixed assets are measured at cost less accumulated depreciation and any accumulated impairment losses. All costs incurred to bring a tangible fixed asset into its intended working condition should be included in the measurement of cost.

Depreciation is charged so as to allocate the cost of tangible fixed assets less their residual value over their estimated useful lives. Depreciation is provided on the following basis:

Office equipment 33% Reducing Balance Basis

Computer equipment 33% Reducing Balance Basis

i) Stocks

Stocks are valued at the lower of cost and net realisable value after making due allowance for obsolete and slow moving stocks. Cost includes all direct costs and an appropriate proportion of fixed and variable overheads.

j) Debtors

Trade and other debtors are recognised at the settlement amount after any trade discount offered. Prepayments are valued at the amount prepaid net of any trade discounts due.

k) Cash at bank and in hand

Cash at bank and in hand includes cash and short term highly liquid investments with a short maturity of three months or less from the date of acquisition or opening of the deposit or similar account.

l) Liabilities and provisions

Liabilities are recognised when there is an obligation at the Balance sheet date as a result of a past event, it is probable that a transfer of economic benefit will be required in settlement, and the amount of the settlement can be estimated reliably.

Liabilities are recognised at the amount that the charity anticipates it will pay to settle the debt or the amount it has received as advanced payments for the goods or services it must provide.

Provisions are measured at the best estimate of the amounts required to settle the obligation. Where the effect of the time value of money is material, the provision is based on the present value of those amounts, discounted at the pre tax discount rate that reflects the risks specific to the liability. The unwinding of the discount is recognised in the Statement of financial activities as a finance cost.

m) Financial instruments

The charity only has financial assets and financial liabilities of a kind that qualify as basic financial instruments. Basic financial instruments are initially recognised at transaction value and subsequently measured at their settlement value with the exception of bank loans which are subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method.

n) Pensions

The charity is a member of a pension arrangement with NEST and contributions are charged to the Statement of Financial Activity as paid.

o) Fund accounting

General funds are unrestricted funds which are available for use at the discretion of the Trustees in furtherance of the general objectives of the charity and which have not been designated for other purposes.

Restricted funds are funds which are to be used in accordance with specific restrictions imposed by donors or which have been raised by the charity for particular purposes. The costs of raising and administering such funds are charged against the specific fund. The aim and use of each restricted fund is set out in the notes to the financial statements.

p) Donated good and pro bono services

Donated goods are valued at the price the charity would pay for a comparable product at its main supplying supermarket. Pro bono services are valued based on their market value.

2 Critical accounting estimates and areas of judgment

Estimates and judgments are continually evaluated and are based on historical experience and other factors, including expectations of future events that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances.

Critical accounting estimates and assumptions:

The charity makes estimates and assumptions concerning the future. The resulting accounting estimates and assumptions will, by definition, seldom equal the related actual results. The trustees are of the opinion that the following is a significant accounting estimate:

The charity receives donations and services in kind. The value of pro bono services is based on the open market value which would be payable for such a service. The value of food donations in kind is based on the comparative value of purchased goods at one of the charity’s main supplying supermarkets.

The value of food donations in kind is determined using the price we would typically pay to purchase the item. Page 25

THE BOW FOODBANK LIMITED Notes to the financial statements For the year ended 31 March 2025

3 Detailed comparatives for the statement of financial activities

Unrestricted Funds £ 521,638 3,500	Restricted funds- Food £ 14,121 14,080	Restricted funds Non Food £ 7,939 211,455	2025 Total £ 543,698 229,035	Unrestricted Funds £ 501,473 35,750	2024 Funds £ 537,223 5,528 Unrestricted	2024 Funds £ 344,506 - Restricted	2024 Total £ 881,729 5,528
					542,751	344,506	887,257
					198 547,859	9,168 337,039	9,366 884,898
					548,057	346,207	894,264
					(5,306) -	(1,701) -	(7,007) -
					(5,306) 436,487	(1,701) 117,246	(7,007) 553,733
					431,181	115,545	546,726
					Restricted funds- Food £ 4,097 99,403	Restricted funds Non Food £ 37,955 203,051	2024 Total £ 543,525 338,204
525,138	28,201	219,394	772,733	537,223	103,500	241,006	881,729

4 Income from donations and legacies
5 Investment income

Interest	Unrestricted Funds £ 9,021	2025 Total £ 9,021	Unrestricted Funds £ 5,528	2024 Total £ 5,528
	9,021	9,021	5,528	5,528

Page 26

THE BOW FOODBANK LIMITED Notes to the financial statements For the year ended 31 March 2025

6 Analysis of expenditure

£ 32,400 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Cost of raising funds	oodbank Advice £ £ - - 203,323 - 2,248 - 187,074 - 37,070 - 12 - 157,300 - 35,215 - - 15,095 10,503 - 6,097 - 38,803 - 31,915 - 4,866 - 1,110 - 3,237 - 3,694 - 10,478 - 370 - 6,212 - 6,385 - 5,054 - 3,601 - 2,064 - 21,069 - 2,392 - 3,041 - 783,133 15,095 871,170 13,728 Charitable activities	oodbank Advice £ £ - - 203,323 - 2,248 - 187,074 - 37,070 - 12 - 157,300 - 35,215 - - 15,095 10,503 - 6,097 - 38,803 - 31,915 - 4,866 - 1,110 - 3,237 - 3,694 - 10,478 - 370 - 6,212 - 6,385 - 5,054 - 3,601 - 2,064 - 21,069 - 2,392 - 3,041 - 783,133 15,095 871,170 13,728 Charitable activities	2025 Total £ 32,400 203,323 2,248 187,074 37,070 12 157,300 35,215 15,095 10,503 6,097 38,803 31,915 4,866 1,110 3,237 3,694 10,478 370 6,212 6,385 5,054 3,601 2,064 21,069 2,392 3,041	2024 Total £ 9,366 143,025 926 443,510 - - 199,990 13,800 13,728 - 17,087 - - 3,541 7,937 3,700 12,664 - 1,592 502 1,985 8,936 704 8,509 1,830 - 932
	oodbank £ - 203,323 2,248 187,074 37,070 12 157,300 35,215 - 10,503 6,097 38,803 31,915 4,866 1,110 3,237 3,694 10,478 370 6,212 6,385 5,054 3,601 2,064 21,069 2,392 3,041
32,400	783,133	15,095	830,628	-
9,366	871,170	13,728	-	894,264

6a Analysis of expenditure (prior year)

£ 9,366 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Cost of raising funds	oodbank Advice £ £ - - 143,025 - 926 - 443,510 - 199,990 - 13,800 - - 13,728 - - - - 17,087 - 3,541 - 7,937 - 3,700 - 12,664 - - - - - 1,592 - 502 - 1,985 - 8,936 - 704 - 8,509 - 1,830 - 932 - 871,170 13,728 638,801 30,299 Charitable activities	oodbank Advice £ £ - - 143,025 - 926 - 443,510 - 199,990 - 13,800 - - 13,728 - - - - 17,087 - 3,541 - 7,937 - 3,700 - 12,664 - - - - - 1,592 - 502 - 1,985 - 8,936 - 704 - 8,509 - 1,830 - 932 - 871,170 13,728 638,801 30,299 Charitable activities	2024 Total £ 9,366 143,025 926 443,510 199,990 13,800 13,728 - - 17,087 3,541 7,937 3,700 12,664 - - 1,592 502 1,985 8,936 704 8,509 1,830 932	2023 Total £ 540 97,615 - 305,041 177,561 4,200 30,299 8,610 1,699 3,144 2,804 2,334 7 26,004 90 1,816 3,773 - 1,241 - 1,913 - 176 773
	oodbank £ - 143,025 926 443,510 199,990 13,800 - - - 17,087 3,541 7,937 3,700 12,664 - - 1,592 502 1,985 8,936 704 8,509 1,830 932
9,366	871,170	13,728	894,264	-
540	638,801	30,299	-	669,640

Page 27

THE BOW FOODBANK LIMITED Notes to the financial statements For the year ended 31 March 2025

7 Net income / (expenditure) for the year

This is stated after charging / (crediting):	2025	2024
	£	£
Depreciation	3,174	926
Independent examination	3,500	3,180

8 Staff costs

Wages and salaries Social security costs Contribution to defined contribution pension schemes	2025 £ 187,116 11,647 4,560	2024 £ 132,121 7,985 2,919
	203,323	143,025

The average number of persons employed by the charity during the year was as follows:

Directors Admin and frontline staff	2025 No. 10 10	2024 No. 10 3
	20	13

The following number of employees received annual remuneration during the year between

£60,000 - £69,999

2025	2024
No.	No.
1	1

The total employee benefits including pension contributions of the key management personnel were £68,930 (2024: £56,940 for one CEO).

9 Emoluments of the trustees

The trustees did not receive any remuneration during the year (2024: Nil).

There were no employees in the year (2024: none). There were no employee benefit payments to key management personnel in the year (2024: Nil).

10 Taxation

The charitable company is exempt from corporation tax as all its income is charitable and is applied for charitable purposes.

£ 4,736 1,366 (1,992) Office equipment	£ 400 5,508 (400) Computer equipment	Total £ 5,136 6,874 (2,392)
4,110	5,508	9,618
859 �� (859)	67 1,818 (67)	926 3,174 (926)
1,356	1,818	3,174
2,754	3,690	6,444
3,877	333	4,210

11 Tangible fixed assets

All of the above assets are used for charitable purposes.

Page 28

THE BOW FOODBANK LIMITED Notes to the financial statements For the year ended 31 March 2025

12 Stocks Food Stock 13 Debtors Trade debtors Other debtors 14 Creditors: amounts falling due within one year Trade creditors Other taxation and social security Accruals and deferred income	2025 £ 12,389	2024 £ 49,459
	12,389	49,459
	2025 £ 75 17,444	2024 £ 275 11,918
	17,519	12,193
	2025 £ 8,356 4,389 9,200	2024 £ 7,771 9,724 3,180
	21,945	20,675

Page 29

THE BOW FOODBANK LIMITED Notes to the financial statements For the year ended 31 March 2025

15 Statement of funds

Balance at 1 April 2024 £ 431,181 1,000 - - - - - 5,000 (7,500) 2,700 473 376 - - - - - 2,753		Income £ 534,159	Expenditure £ (559,269) - (80) (1,000) (1,000) (3,000) (1,401) (5,000) - (6,130) (473) (376) (4,000) (220) (8,000) (129) (1,854) (2,753)	Transfer Balance at 31 March 2025 £ £ 10,738 416,809 - 1,000 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1,570 - - - - - - - - 3,000 - 129 - 1,854 - - -	Transfer Balance at 31 March 2025 £ £ 10,738 416,809 - 1,000 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1,570 - - - - - - - - 3,000 - 129 - 1,854 - - -	Transfer Balance at 31 March 2025 £ £ 10,738 416,809 - 1,000 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1,570 - - - - - - - - 3,000 - 129 - 1,854 - - -
		- 80 1,000 1,000 3,000 1,401 - 7,500 5,000 - - 4,000 220 5,000 - - -				1,000 - - - - - - - 1,570 - - - - - - - -
4,802		28,201	(35,416)		4,983	2,570
5,667 85 - 2,022 33,955 - - - - - - - - - 10,000 3,000 129 1,854 10,000 10,000 26,855 5,000 - - 2,176	- - - - - -	21,920 40,000 5,000 49,600 5,000 3,000 25,000 14,042 25,000 600 20,664 938 630 - - - 3,000 5,000 -	(10,967) (5,470) - (49,600) - (1,350) (2,668) (42,992) (8,298) (25,000) (20) (20,664) (930) (630) (10,000) - - - (10,000) (10,000) (26,855) (5,000) (3,000) - (2,500)	- (85) - (2,022) (33,955) - - 25,000 - - - - - - - (3,000) (129) (1,854) - - - - - - 324		16,620 34,530 5,000 - - 3,650 332 7,008 5,744 - 580 - 8 - - - - - - - - - - 5,000 -
110,743		219,394	(235,944)	(15,721)		78,472
115,545 546,726		247,595 781,754	(271,360) (830,629)	(10,738) -		81,042 497,851

Page 30

THE BOW FOODBANK LIMITED Notes to the financial statements For the year ended 31 March 2025

15 Statement of funds (prior year)

Balance at 1 April 2023 £ 436,487 - - - - - - - 15,000 584 10,000 - 8,247 5,000	Income £ 542,751	Expenditure Transfer Balance at 31 March 2024 £ £ £ -548,057 0 431,181 - 1,000 (1,300) - - - 5,000 (75,000) - - (7,500) - (7,500) - 2,700 (1,527) - 473 (15,000) - - (8,084) - - (14,624) - 376 (4,000) - - (5,494) - 2,753 (5,000) - -	Expenditure Transfer Balance at 31 March 2024 £ £ £ -548,057 0 431,181 - 1,000 (1,300) - - - 5,000 (75,000) - - (7,500) - (7,500) - 2,700 (1,527) - 473 (15,000) - - (8,084) - - (14,624) - 376 (4,000) - - (5,494) - 2,753 (5,000) - -
	1,000 1,300 5,000 75,000 - 2,700 2,000 - 7,500 5,000 4,000 - -		1,000 - 5,000 - (7,500) 2,700 473 - - 376 - 2,753 -
38,831	103,500	(137,529) -	4,802
- 40,000 15,500 22,915 - - - - - - - - - - -	25,984 - - 98,300 33,955 10,000 3,000 1,750 10,000 10,000 5,297 33,720 1,500 5,000 2,500	(20,317) - (39,915) - (15,500) - (119,193) - - - - - - - (1,621) - - - - - (3,443) - (6,865) - (1,500) - - - (324) -	5,667 85 - 2,022 33,955 10,000 3,000 129 10,000 10,000 1,854 26,855 - 5,000 2,176
78,415	241,006	(208,678) -	110,743
117,246 553,733	344,506 887,257	(346,207) - (894,264) -	115,545 546,726

Restricted Funds Food These sources of income represent funding restricted for the provision of food.

� �

Restricted Funds Non Food These sources of income represent funding restricted for non food items, such as building maintenance, salaries, admin costs and the provision of non food items such as nappies or sanitary items.

Page 31

THE BOW FOODBANK LIMITED Notes to the financial statements For the year ended 31 March 2025

16 Analysis of net assets between funds

Analysis of net assets between funds
Fixed Assets Current Assets Current Liabilities Net assets at the end of the year Analysis of net assets between funds (prior year) Fixed Assets Current Assets Current Liabilities Net assets at the end of the year	Fund £ 6,444 432,311 (21,945) 416,810 Fund £ 4,210 447,646 (20,675) 431,181 Unrestricted Unrestricted	Restricted Funds- Food £ - 2,570 - 2,570 Restricted Funds- Food £ - 4,802 - 4,802	Restricted Funds- Non- Food £ - 78,472 - 78,472 Restricted Funds- Non- Food £ - 110,743 - 110,743	Total Funds £ 6,444 513,353 (21,945)
				497,852
				Total Funds £ 4,210 563,191 (20,675)
				546,726

16a Analysis of net assets between funds (prior year)

Page 32

THE BOW FOODBANK LIMITED Notes to the financial statements For the year ended 31 March 2025

17 Reconciliation of net income / (expenditure) to net cash flow from operating activities

Net income / (expenditure) for the reporting period (as per the statement of financial activities) Depreciation Interest, rent and dividends from investments (Increase)/ decrease in stock (Increase)/ decrease in debtors Increase/ (decrease) in creditors Net cash provided by / (used in) operating activities Analysis of cash and cash equivalents Cash at bank and in hand Total cash and cash equivalents	£ 501,539 501,539 At 1 April 2024	2025 £ (44,674) 2,248 (9,021) 37,070 (5,326) (2,930) (22,633) Cash flows £ (18,094) (18,094)	2024 £ (7,007) 929 (5,528) 280 (3,020) 10,382
			(3,964)
			£ 483,445 At 31 March 2025
			483,445

18 Analysis of cash and cash equivalents

19 Legal status of the charity

The charity is a company limited by guarantee and has no share capital. Each member is liable to contribute a sum not exceeding £1 in the event of the charity being wound up.

20 Related party transactions

During the year the total donations received from trustees amounted to £1,410 (2024: £2,100). No trustee received reimbursement of expenses in either 2024 or 2025.

Page 33

THE BOW FOODBANK LIMITED

THE BOW FOODBANK LIMITED

(A company limited by guarantee)

CONTENTS

THE BOW FOODBANK LIMITED

(A company limited by guarantee)

REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS OF THE CHARITY, ITS TRUSTEES AND ADVISERS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

THE BOW FOODBANK LIMITED

(A company limited by guarantee)

CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

(A company limited by guarantee)

TRUSTEES‘ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

Objectives and Activities

(A company limited by guarantee)

TRUSTEES‘ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

Reducing Queueing Time:

(A company limited by guarantee)

TRUSTEES‘ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

The table below shows the difference in visits month on month in 24/25.

(A company limited by guarantee)

TRUSTEES‘ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

Sustainability and Partnerships:

(A company limited by guarantee)

TRUSTEES‘ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

Wider Partnerships:

Corporate Partnerships:

(A company limited by guarantee)

TRUSTEES‘ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

Food Aid Network:

Support Services:

(A company limited by guarantee)

TRUSTEES` REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

Below is a summary of the outcomes of this work:

Outcome for First Love Foundation cases:

Law Stop:

Easy access:

Over three months we saw 41 cases of which 18 received £2,733 worth of energy vouchers. Four received support on Universal Credit.

Internal Case Work: (over six months) - 170 positive outcome

29 referrals for alternative food support in Tower Hamlets

6 Domestic Abuse referrals

13 out of borough food bank referrals

63 energy advice referrals

9 Healthy Start referrals

(A company limited by guarantee)

TRUSTEES` REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

4 immigration advice referrals

9 Baby bank referrals

6 people found housing

19 supported around immigration

1 immigration status challenged (providing access to £15,410 worth of benefits annually)

11 micro grants distributed

Quality of food:

Celebrating our volunteers:

(A company limited by guarantee)

TRUSTEES‘ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

(A company limited by guarantee)

TRUSTEES` REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

53% of volunteers volunteer to help out their community.

100% of volunteers agree or strongly agree they build skills through volunteering.

100% of volunteers say that their volunteering helps them to feel connected to their community.

Summary Statistics:

(A company limited by guarantee)

TRUSTEES` REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

A snapshot of the client group at Bow Foodbank

Ethnic diversity of our guests

Gender and parental status

(A company limited by guarantee)

TRUSTEES‘ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

(A company limited by guarantee)

TRUSTEES‘ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

Fundraising activities and income generation – information or fundraising practices.

Financial Review

Going Concern

Reserves Policy

(A company limited by guarantee)

TRUSTEES‘ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

Income

Expenditure

Future Plans