Chair of Trustees: Nigel Currey Treasurer: David Busfield Co-ordinator : Cheryl Whitton
Annual report 1 st April – 31 st March 2020/2021
Report created by – Cheryl Whitton, Project Coordinator
Aim : To provide food parcels for people in short-term food crisis. To end hunger and poverty in our community.
Our mission : By working and liaising with other Voluntary Services and Agencies to provide practical help with dignity whilst challenging injustice.
1,336 emergency food parcels were provided to local people from April 2020 to March 2021. These parcels provided food for 2096 adults and 1327 children making 3,423 people receiving food for a minimum of three days or at least 30,807 individual meals.
We have experienced fluctuating need throughout the last twelve months and believe this is due to
lack of access to local services, limited public transport, the introduction of pop-up foodbanks and other Covid support schemes. This has been a situation recognised throughout the Trussell Trust network, outside of major cities.
The Selby District community have constantly donated both financially and with food. Due to these donations, we have been able to support other local foodbanks in Knottingley, Sheffield and York, donating 5.4 tonnes of food. This is a practice commonly undertaken by Foodbanks with the Trussell Trust network. Historically we had been the recipient of
donations from others and it has felt good to be able to support those who have previously supported us. We have also continued to provide milk and cereals to local primary school, ensuring that no child goes without breakfast and to a local
homeless project. In total we have distributed 40.25 tonnes of food and other products.
We continue to share the Trussell Trust concerns around Universal Credit delays for new claimants. As a food bank we support new applicants whilst they await a new claim payment, ensuring people have access to food in the interim period which can take up to 5 weeks. Sadly, although Universal Credit was put in place to support the most vulnerable, often people accessing it find themselves in the most desperate situation.
At the end of July 2020, I was appointed as the new, part time, paid Project Coordinator, to enable the service to move forward following the death of our previous Project Coordinator Bark Barnett. We have continued to recruit new volunteers to ensure we meet the need of local people.
The past year has brought many challenges with almost 50 percent of our volunteers having to shield. We are hugely proud of the volunteer team who have continued to keep foodbank running throughout the pandemic. We have continually assessed, and risk managed the service and at times have adopted “an at the door” model and had much smaller working teams to adhere to social distancing guidelines. We are proud to have had no break in service.
We have continued to distribute food from the 1811 Building on New Lane in Selby whilst food packing and sorting continued at 30 New Lane. The operational and logistical challenges have put volunteers under significant strain, but they continued to show up, week after week with a true strength that epitomises the whole foodbank team spirit.
As we move forward, we are excited to develop a bigger and better permanent space at the 1811 building. We plan to create a new warehouse area and a welcoming client greeting space and office. Although our goal is to end the need for a foodbank in Selby & District, we will continue to support those in need for as long as there is need.
Crisis type
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Crisis type Vouchers Adults Children Total
Benefit 77 131 109 240
changes 54.58% 45.42%
Benefit 95 152 74 32.74% 226
delays 67.26%
Child 29 37 57 94
holiday 39.36% 60.64%
meals
Debt 89 137 93 40.43% 230
59.57%
Delayed 6 7 63.64% 4 36.36% 11
wages
Domestic 12 16 40% 24 60% 40
violence
Homeless 75 108 9 7.69% 117
92.31%
Low 784 1233 782 2015
income 61.19% 38.81%
No 2 4 50% 4 50% 8
recourse to
public
funds
Other 94 139 92 231
60.17% 39.83%
Refused 4 6 60% 4 40% 10
STBA
Sickness 69 126 75 201
62.69% 37.31%
Total 1366 2096 1327 3423
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Household age groups
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Age group Number of people
Adults 17 – 24 years 341
Adults 25 – 64 years 1665
Adults over 65 80
Adults age unknown 10
Children 0-4 years 406
Children 5-11 years 599
Children 12-16 years 305
Children age unknown 17
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Family size
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Family size Vouchers fulfilled
Couple 188 14.07%
Family 301 22.53%
Other 110 8.23%
Single 449 33.61%
Single parent 288 21.56%
Total 1336
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Report of Chair of Trustees – Nigel Currey
As mentioned in the appendix to our Annual Report for 2019/20 and referred to above, Mark Barnett our Manager died on April 1[st] 2020 from Covid 19. However Mark was already aware that he was otherwise in poor health and responsibility was being transferred to a Management Team and this progressed throughout Dec 2019 to March 2020.
Despite the great loss to Foodbank, in practical terms the Team rose to the challenge and our service to clients continued unchanged. However the effects of Covid 19 were soon felt in other ways early in 2020/21.
Operation from 30 New Lane Selby was only practicable for a few weeks, despite our best efforts, maintaining Social Distancing and the security of our volunteers was not possible.
Selby Town Council when approached immediately offered free use of the ground floor of 1811 building in New Lane, some 150 metres away, with much more space. For the rest of this report year we have operated from two buildings, no. 30 New Lane used as storage and packing, 1811 as our Client interface; gradually we are moving to solely use 1811, with some other warehousing, not at 30 New Lane.
We advertised for a Volunteer Manager/Co-ordinator in May 2020 with no success, and the volunteer Management Team realised even then that asking someone to commit three days per weeks on a voluntary basis was impracticable; Foodbank had expended considerably since Mark Barnett took on the role in 2016.
As Cheryl has mentioned in her report, she was appointed as paid Co-ordinator on a 3 day per week, flexible hours basis, following a proper advertising and interview process. Under Cheryl’s guidance the work of Foodbank has continued and has developed as far as is practicable with Covid 19 restrictions. Perhaps the major change for clients has been the move to almost 100% e-vouchers, which eliminates direct contact and reduces administration.
The work of Selby & District Foodbank was impacted during the whole year by the effect of Covid and also by provision of food resources to individuals through the Local Authority and pop-up “foodbanks” and as the latter did not require any referral document they became the preferred option to access food for some; we have no knowledge of how great this affected the number of clients accessing Selby Foodbank, but numbers reduced.
Trustees took the view that most of this alternative provision would be temporary and continued to pursue the lease of the 1811 building, which will need internal modifications from its previous use as a Selby College Learning Centre. (A 5 year lease was agreed with Selby Town Council in April 2021).
Financially Selby & District Foodbank has benefited during the year from some significant “one-off” donations and an increase in regular giving. In the early weeks following the death of Mark Barnett we received one donation of £10,000 in his memory and several others from individuals and groups which appear to have been donated for similar reasons.
Trustees are aware that our funds have built up during then year. We are conscious however that there will be considerable expenditure to make internal changes at 1811 once our lease is live; we now have the ongoing expeditioner of a paid Cocoordinator and we need to provide for that in the longer term. In addition it is likely that as the expected after effects of Covid 19 become apparent we will have expenditure on food supplies to top up donations as we have done in previous years.
Taking into account all the issues we have faced, I feel the year’s work is something of which we can be proud, although we all wish Foodbank provision was not required in our area. The Management structure beneath Trustees of Coordinator and Management Team supporting that role has served us well.
Nigel Currey
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SELBY FOODBANK
Balance Statement 01.04.2020 - 31.03.2021
OPENING BALANCE 01.04.2020 23358.85
INCOME
Donations - general 72055.52
Fund Raising 0.00
Reserved Donations inc. ACTS 435 6401.70
Grants 11500.00
Standing Orders 5866.00
Trussell Trust 856.93
Refunds 0.00
120039.
96680.15 00
COMMITTED EXPENDITURE
Trussell Trust Fee 0.00
Printing 0.00
Supermarket Supplies 139.10
Mobile Top-up 72.00
Store Rental 2700.00
Water & Sewerage 49.22
Electricity 705.82
Landline/Broadband 1101.14
Insurance 219.52
Stationery 0.00
ACTS 435 expenses 25.00
Voucher schemes 0.00
Client clothing etc. 0.00
Selby Self Storage 4534.80
Partner Donations 0.00
Miscellaneous 16777.87
TOTAL COMMITTED EXPENDITURE £ 26324.47
TOTAL £ 93714.53
CLOSING BANK BALANCE £ 93714.53
There were no other assets or liabilities as at either 31st March 2020 or
31 [st ] March 2021
Statement prepared by: David Busfield (Treasurer)
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date.. 3110312021