HUNSTANTON AND DISTRICT FOODBANK TRUSTEE ANNUAL REPORT FOR FINANCIAL YEAR 2023-24 ## **INTRODUCTION** Hunstanton and District Foodbank is registered with the Charity Commission as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation under Charity Number 1164060. Our official address, which is also our operational base, is St Edmund’s Church Halls, Church Street, Hunstanton, Norfolk, PE36 6BE. Our financial year runs from 1 April to 31 March. The following served as Trustees during this year: Samuel Abramian Elaine Coker Martin Edwards Mark Fuchter Garry Langham Alexander James Monro Howard John Norman Samuel Staveley ## **STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND RECRUITMENT OF TRUSTEES** Hunstanton and District Foodbank is part of The Trussell Trust’s nationwide network of over 400 foodbanks, working to tackle food poverty and hunger in our local communities. Trustees are recruited by placing adverts locally, inviting applications from volunteers who are asked to provide information about relevant skills and experience and sign that they meet eligibility criteria set out in our Constitution. Trustees review the information and invite applicants for an informal interview. New trustees are appointed for a term of three years by a formal resolution at a meeting of the charity trustees. During this year: - Martin Edwards, Alexander James Monro and Samuel Staveley resigned as Trustees; - Samuel Abramian was appointed as Chair of Trustees in place of Alexander James Monro; - Mark Fuchter was appointed as a new Trustee. All trustees work on an unpaid and voluntary basis. At least one trustee attends each operating session, ably supported by volunteers – we have a total of 15 volunteers who work on an informal rota system. ## **OBJECTIVES AND KEY ACTIVITIES** We aim to relieve people in Hunstanton and the surrounding district who are 1 HUNSTANTON AND DISTRICT FOODBANK TRUSTEE ANNUAL REPORT FOR FINANCIAL YEAR 2023-24 suffering acute financial hardship by: - providing emergency parcels containing a minimum of three days’ nutritionally balanced non-perishable food, plus toiletries and household items where needed, to individuals and families who have been referred by a support agency. We will also provide emergency parcels for those who have been unable to obtain a referral but are temporarily in extreme poverty. - providing top-up funds where clients are facing an imminent loss of their domestic energy supplies. - signposting clients towards agencies who can provide appropriate advice and support. - working directly with our local primary and secondary schools to support families in need. Both Hunstanton schools can refer families to the foodbank and hold a small stock of our emergency food parcels for immediate needs. We fund the provision of breaktime fresh fruit to the primary school students. - providing food vouchers at the start of school holidays for the families of local school students in receipt of free school meals. This is in partnership with two of our High Street shops and we also have an agreement with a local charity shop who will provide free clothing for a foodbank client upon receipt of a letter of recommendation from a foodbank trustee. - maintaining close links with Hunstanton Town Council’s “Helping Hands Hub”, referring respective clients to each other and enabling our clients to access support agencies who regularly attend the Hub as well as the Coastal Community supermarket, which sells cut-price groceries in a “pantry” scheme. - maintaining food collection points in two local supermarkets and in many of our local churches. The continuing cost-of-living crisis meant further and deeper financial hardship for an increasing number of people. Hunstanton and the surrounding area is no different from other coastal towns with high levels of poverty and hardship. Without a local foodbank more families would be forced into extreme hardship and destitution. We step in with emergency support when people run out of food, have no money and so face going hungry. As more and more families cannot afford essentials, providing top-up funds for energy bills has become a normal part of the support we offer. It feels to us that we are still a long way from doing away with the need for a local foodbank. ## **PERFORMANCE AND RESULTS IN 2023-24** _Table1: Emergency food parcels: summary of latest 3 years_ ||**2023-24**|**2022-23**|**2021-22**| |---|---|---|---| |Total no of Parcels|549|939|593| 2 HUNSTANTON AND DISTRICT FOODBANK TRUSTEE ANNUAL REPORT FOR FINANCIAL YEAR 2023-24 **----- Start of picture text -----**
- Provided to Adults 384 591 404
- Provided to Children 165 348 189
Stock (Kg)
- Out 6,365 10,286 7,721
- In 6,958 9,964 6,742
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## **Partnership with British Red Cross: Financial Inclusion** The key development this year was the start of a 3-year pilot under a joint Trussell / British Red Cross initiative to place Financial Inclusion support workers in foodbanks. Financial inclusion support is about helping clients to reach a point where their income meets their needs, and they no longer need emergency food parcels. The focus is on clients being able to access all entitlements, debt being under control, and money management - budgeting, reducing costs and putting aside savings - as well as wider advocacy and support. The pilot began in August 2023 when the British Red Cross FI support worker took up post at our foodbank. In the trustees’ view she immediately made a difference, being on-hand at every foodbank session to engage real-time with clients – especially important given the pressures on other support services that have reduced their accessibility. She was a regular at the Helping Hands Hub, which is attended by some foodbank clients, and started to build links with other community groups and local schools. By the year-end she had helped a number of our more regular clients to resolve issues around benefits and had disbursed over £2,000 in winter hardship grants to clients and their families who otherwise would have fallen back on direct support from the foodbank. Under the terms of the partnership, Financial Inclusion activities are managed directly by British Red Cross and are not reflected in the foodbank’s figures. ## **Other Foodbank Activities** As Table 1 above shows, the number of emergency food parcels fell in 23-24, compared to the previous year. Similarly, gas and electricity top-ups were lower this year at £1,010, against £2,700 last year. However, as noted above, this is masked to a degree by the significant extra support available via the Financial Inclusion pilot, underlining the continuing need for support. We maintained our support to local schools in food and holiday food vouchers to a total of just under £16,000. We continue to benefit from the sustained generosity of our supporters who donate the food, groceries and money that enable us to operate. We were chosen by Hunstanton Lawn Tennis Tournament to be their 2023 Charity of the Year, raising over £1,000 at the Tennis Week. We continued to receive significant donations from corporate bodies and individuals that are the bulk of our income, as well as a £5,000 3 HUNSTANTON AND DISTRICT FOODBANK TRUSTEE ANNUAL REPORT FOR FINANCIAL YEAR 2023-24 grant from the Borough Council of KLWN. Two thirds of our food and grocery donations were from individuals, whether directly or via supermarket in-store collections and we also benefitted from substantial donations from churches, schools and other community bodies. We remain very grateful to our wonderful volunteers, who sort and stack all donations and prepare the emergency parcels, ensuring we have a number ready to go out at an instant. In doing so they carefully check every _Use B_ y and _Best Before_ date as we only distribute in-date food. Outreach activities this year included meeting a field trip of social science students from the University of East Anglia, together with Councillors running the Helping Hands Hub, to share our perspectives on rural deprivation and how community support can ameliorate it. We also provided regular briefings at the Church of England Deanery Synod to update them on the nature and level of local poverty and our efforts to address it. ## **FINANCIAL REVIEW 2023-24** _Table 2: Summary of Hunstanton and District Foodbank Accounts (nearest £)_ **----- Start of picture text -----**
Operations Income Expenditure Operating
Account surplus
2023-24 £28,238 £22,567 £5,671
2022-23 £26,622 £25,121 £1,501
Reserves
Opening bal. 1.4.2023 £21,486
Closing bal. 31.3.2024 £26,598
Restricted
Account
Opening bal. 1.4.2023 £51,012
Closing bal. 31.3.2024 £39,117
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## **Notes** : - The Restricted account is used solely for restricted funds – i.e. those that can only be used for the given purpose. In this year these funds represent a grant from Trussell to fund the Financial Inclusion project. Hunstanton and District Foodbank has no debts. 4 HUNSTANTON AND DISTRICT FOODBANK TRUSTEE ANNUAL REPORT FOR FINANCIAL YEAR 2023-24 - The Trustees’ reserves policy is to maintain a minimum of £10,000 as a baseline in our operations account. - We do not act as custodian trustees in any respect. Sam Abramian Chair of Trustees Hunstanton and District Foodbank January 2025 5 ## FOOD BANK ACCOUNTS 2023-2024 |INCOME|FORD|SLANEY|GREEN|CONNELL|HMRC|DONATION|CAF|TENNIS|CASH|WIND|KINGS|Sumup|PURPLE|||||||MONTH| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| ||||||GIFT AID|||WEEK|(float)|FARM|LYNN BC||PATCH|||||||TOTAL| |APRIL|40|5|40|200|1056.83|||||||||||||||1341.83| |MAY|40|5|50|200||839.15||||||||||||||1134.15| |JUNE|40|5|40|200|||500|||||||||||||785| |JULY|40|5|40|200||1026.46|||110|||||||||||1421.46| |AUGUST|40|5|50|200||500||565||||||||||||1360| |SEPTEMBER|40|5|40|200||675||||||||||||||960| |OCTOBER|40|5|40|200||694||||||||||||||979| |NOVEMBER|40|5|50|200||1075||||8000||||||||||9370| |DECEMBER|25|5|40|200||700||||1425|5000|||||||||7395| |JANUARY|25|5|40|200||236||||||||||||||506| |FEBRUARY|25|5|50|200||||||||0.98||||||||280.98| |MARCH|25|5|40|200||1715|||||||161.85|||||||2146.85| |||||||||||||||||||||27680.27| |EXPENDITURE|PHONE|BARSBY|TESCO|ELECTRICITY|WITLEY|BUTCHERS|RENT|TRUST|INDIAN|CASH|LIDL|GOODY|KEMPS|ACCESS ICO||QD||HSE|AMAZON|| ||EE BT &|||& GAS|||HIRE|ADVICE||||BAGS||INS||||BOOKS||| ||TALKTALK|||VOUCHERS||||||||||||||||| |APRIL|84.55||24.62||||||||20.55|||||||||129.72| |MAY|78.5|97.76|94.2|||||||||||||||||270.46| |JUNE|78.5|146.64|||||105|||200||||||||||530.14| |JULY|78.5|195.52||||6000|780|||||||||||||7054.02| |AUGUST|78.5||80.5|70|150.02|||1140|130|||||||||||1649.02| |SEPTEMBER|78.5|178.52||||||||||||||||||257.02| |OCTOBER|88.5|195.52||120|||90|||300||||244.38||||||1038.4| |NOVEMBER|78.5|146.64||250||770|780|||||889.02|2500||||||87.81|£5,501.97| |DECEMBER|20.13|178.52||130|||45||162.9|||||||||||£536.55| |JANUARY|37.14|97.76|71.18|240|||30||||||||35||9|||£520.08| |FEBRUARY|55.33|146.64|||||||||||||||10||195.56|£407.53| |MARCH|49.13|195.52||200||2020|||||||2040|||||16.01|151.86|£4,672.52| |Totals|805.78|1579.04|270.5|1010|150.02|8790|1830|1140|292.9|500|20.55|889.02|4540|244.38|35||19|16.01|435.23|£22,567.43| |COMMUNITY BANK ACCOUNT|||||||||Difference|||||||||||£5,112.84| |Opening 01.04.2023||21,485.51||||||||||||||||||| |Closing 31.03.2024||26,598.35||||||||||||||||||| |Difference||£5,112.84||||||||||||||||||| |BARCLAYS PREMIUM|BUSINESS ACCOUNT|||||||||||||||||||| |Opening 01.04.2023||£51,012.26|||Red Cross|£12,453||||||||||||||| |Closing 31.03.2024||£39,117.16|||Interest|£557.90||||||||||||||| | CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examinerfs report on th• accounts Section A Independent Examinef's Report Raportto th•tru8tee8 IS*Aipf rf￿? On accounts forthe year 11 sk Ljfr Charfty no {If any) I roport to the truste85 on my 8xaminath)n ofthe ofthe abov8 L*anty1lh8 Tnjsfi lor th8 year ended 8 I. s. ￿.. As the d￿ritIs trusts88. are ￿Sportsi￿e for Ihe preparation of lh8 counts in accordanc8 with th8 r8quir8m8nts of the chart￿e$ Act 2011 (Yhe Act'l. R8sponslblll1i￿ and basis of rewi I ￿K*￿t in res* of my examination or the Trusys actourts carried Lxjt nder sedion 145 01 Ihe 2011 Act and in ¢arryng out my exarninalion. I have folbwed all the 8Oieab18 0ir8clions given by the Charity Commission section 74q5llbl of the Act. Independent •x•minerfs statement -appl1￿1. D818181 l rfnot 8pplic8ble. I hav8 cL¥llpl&ted my 8xaminatv)n. l Gonfirm that no matorial tnatter5 havo o)mo to my att￿t￿n in connÉction Wilh th8 èxamination -di661￿") gives me cause to belwe that in. any m8teriql r8SP8Ct'. th$ atts)Unti￿ record$ w*r• n(rt k8Pt in ac*x)rdan(* with soction 130 of the chart1￿5 Act., or the accounts dwj not accord with the accounting reLyxds.' or the a(xx)unls did not (x)mpty *ith the applicab￿ r￿VirementS can(￿rnI￿ the form and content of a(xounts s81 out in the Ch8riti88 lAC￿Un￿ and Reports) RéguL8tions 2008 other tt)an any ffjqulr￿e￿t Ihat the accounts give a'lrue and fairf wew is not a matt8r ¢onsid8r8d as part of an independent ex2m1nats"￿. I have no o)ncems and h8ve o)me across no other maiters in conneclion Ih the examinatic￿ to which attentk)n ahC￿[d ￿ drawn in thi3 reporj In order to eTrab￿ a proper ut¥Jerstanding of Ihe accounts to be reached. ' Please delole Ihe WO￿ in bwkets rfEh$ydo nol 8pply. Slgngd: D4t•: Rglevont w01￿10n41 quallflcatlonlsl or bc IER Oet 2018 any): Address: LIIA Pi-81 Section B Di5c105ure Only complete If the examinpr npeds to highlighi maipnal tnatters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of tharity accounts.. directions guk1aneè for èxaminersl. Glve hwo bYl•l d•talls of any Stams that the examiner wishe8 to di$GIo¥e. IER Oct 2018