BRIDGING THE GAP (MANCHESTER) ANNUAL REPORT APRIL 2021 – March 2022 ## **STATEMENT ACTING CHAIR** As we continue to grow our More Than Food offer and Foodbank service it is important to reflect on our work in the last year. Introduction of School Uniforms to name but one. We saw a change to our Trustee Board and a couple members of staff moved on to new exciting opportunities. Our Trustees, members of staff alongside our volunteers are so important to the running of our charity, without them we couldn't deliver any of our wonderful activities. MARIE HAWKINS Acting Chair 1 ## Administration Details Charity Name: Bridging the Gap (Manchester) Charity Number: 1170592 Principal Address: Wesley Enterprise Centre Royce Road, Hulme, Manchester, M15 5BP ## Governance Structure Type of governing document: Charitable Incorporated Organisation, Constitution dated 3 January 2017 Previous Organisation: On 3 January 2017 the Charitable Incorporated Organisation took over the assets and activities of Bridging The Gap (Manchester) an unregistered Charity established on 17 March 2014. ## Our Vision & Mission ## **Vision:** Working towards ending poverty and social exclusion within the communities of Hulme, Moss Side, Whalley Range and North Trafford. ## **Mission:** We support people in crisis by providing emergency food provisions and beyond this, aim to help them access the support needed to build resilience and to live a life free from poverty ## OUR STRATEGIC PRIORITIES - To alleviate poverty - To reduce social isolation - To build greater partnerships - To be active leaders - Campaigning and awareness raising - To develop resilient communities, with the community for the community 2 ## Our Trustee Board Evelyn Asante-Mensah OBE Marie Hawkins Gill Darling Chair Vice (Acting) Chair Treasurer Whole Period Whole Period Whole Period Gill Darling Treasurer Michelle McHale BEM Sade Phillip Secretary Member Whole Period Whole Period Kathryn Bourne Member Whole Period Caroline Wickens Member Whole Period ## RESIGNATIONS Evelyn Asante-Mensah OBE. Gill Darling and Sade Phillips ended their appointment as trustees on 31 March 2022. The remaining Board members wish them well in their future endeavours. Four new Trustees were recruited to join the Trustee Board and commenced their roles as of 1 April 2022. 3 ## INCOMING TRUSTEES Jilly McKiernan-Bruce Lynda Mason Member Member Chris Copestake Tallia Atti Member Member ## OUR STAFF Jo Warmington – Project Manager, remained on maternity leave until December 2021 before moving on to new employment. Jon Sands – Acting Project Manager, Jon was a former volunteer who stepped up to cover maternity leave for a period of 12 months. Jon departed the charity in March 2022 Corinne Davenport – Warehouse Co-ordinator Mark Styles – Warehouse Assistant Sean Conners – Warehouse Assistant 4 ## OUR VOLUNTEERS We are hugely indebted and thankful to our volunteers who are the unsung heroes of the Covid-19 pandemic. Their dedication, commitment and selfless acts enabled the Charity to continue operating its services through the many lockdowns and restrictions, ensuring that access to emergency food support was available to those in crisis when needed. This year our volunteers clocked up a staggering 7576 hours of volunteer time. The financial worth of volunteer hours equates to a cost saving of £79,548 in salaries alone based on the rates of pay for the Manchester real living wage. Our volunteer teams are all locally to us and bring a wide range of skills and knowledge supporting social media, website and internal communications, fundraising and day to day activities required to operate the Charity. This strong organisational structure gives us the foundation to react to the needs of our communities and offer continuity and quality of care. We would further like to thank all our corporate volunteers, Local Councillors and Neighbourhood officers for their time and support over this past year, who have helped with our food drives, stock take, warehousing, winter hamper packing and delivery of parcels. 5 ## OUR IMPACT ## **61,909.45Kg of Food Distributed** ## **4546 Adults Supported** ## **635 Christmas Hampers** ## **122 Older Persons Care packages** ## **146,894 Meals Provided** ## **3408 Children Supported** **902 Toy Hampers** ## **17 School Uniforms provided** 6 ## COVID-19 RECOVERY PLANS The Covid-19 pandemic continued to have an impact on our operational procedures throughout 2021-2022. Our services continued to receive requests for support from households affected by Covid-19. In order to safeguard our service users, staff and volunteers, we continued to operate the delivery model, enabling those in crisis to continue accessing vital food support. Our volunteer workforce remained in bubbles and small working groups and only through consultation with our volunteers have we begun increasing the number of volunteers on rota at any given time. We have continued with regular lateral flow testing and the wearing of face masks in communal areas of the building. Due to the lack of ventilation and clean air within our centre it was felt that moving back to face-to-face method of delivery at this present time would be too risky. As part of our recovery from Covid-19 we plan to adapt our work in phases going forward, ## **Phase 1:** To slowly introduce a face-to-face collection service, whereby service users call into the centre to collect their food parcel at an agreed time. ## **Phase 2:** To move our food distribution services to a more suitable but local community venue to increase our level of face-to-face work with the community. Introducing a community café to bring people together and begin breaking down barriers and social isolation. Building community confidence. ## **Phase 3:** To introduce a Community Hub model to provide greater access to wider community services and wrap around support. Working with the community to identify and address community needs. 7 ## OUR SERVICES In 2019 Manchester rated in the top 6 most deprived local authorities based on rank, score, and proportion of LSOAs in the most deprived 10% nationally respectively, rating 2[nd] nationally by rank (The English Indices of Deprivation 2019 (publishing.service.gov.uk). Manchester has one of the highest rates of child poverty by local authority area with 41.8% of children under 16 living in poverty, an increase from 35.4% five years ago. Two factors were vital in ensuring that the Foodbank could meet the increasing need. Firstly, the commitment of our volunteer workforce and secondly, the general public’s generosity and kind donations. At the start of the financial year our stock reserves were stable at 5.8 tonnes of food and hygiene products. Through generous acts of kindness from the general public and corporate donors we received a further 58.4 tonnes of donated items. This enabled us to distribute 61.9 tonnes of food and hygiene products to those in financial crisis. Bridging the Gap (Manchester) has remained a key front-line organisation during the many Covid-19 lockdowns. Our foodbank services remained operational three days per week. This allowed us to distribute 61.55 tonnes of food and hygiene products to the communities of Hulme, Moss Side, Whalley Range, Trafford North and beyond. Feedback from our clients highlights the impact our services have: _“Thank you again for the box of food. I love the recipes on the paper too, very helpful and straight forward meal recipes and a massive help so thank you very much.”_ We know from feedback given by the people we support that without our services they would struggle to feed their families. “ _I've not had to worry about how I'm feeding the kids this weekend. I'm so thankful for help filling in that application for the gas and electric grant. Thank you.”_ Through our More Than Food Projects we have been able to provide additional help and support, for example pre-loaded mobile sim cards, school uniforms and Christmas toy sacks. Our intention is to further develop More Than Food services to enable family’s greater access to support. We know this work is vital in assisting families, one parent stated, _“I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for what you have done for me and my boys today. Took me of my feet with kindness. I’m so use to doing everything myself and having all we need so to be miles away from home with nothing but the clothes on our back is a massive shock for us. What you have done today I will never forget! There should be more people like you in the world. It would be a much better place!”_ 8 ## **EMERGENCY FOOD SUPPORT** Our foodbank services were able to provide emergency food parcels to 2869 individuals referred to our services. 1805 were adults aged between 17 years and 90 years, 1064 were children aged under 16years. Our standard parcels remain at three meals per day per person. However, in exceptional circumstances we provided a 7-day parcel containing three meals per day for seven days. In addition to our emergency foodbank model, we also supported a further 137 adults through our partnership work with a local pastor, enabling us to provide a further 1233 meals to older residents within our local communities. The main reasons for people accessing our services related to benefit delays, low income and sickness/ill health. 9 ## **SCHOOL HOLIDAY PROVISIONS** We have an excellent working relationship with schools within our operational localities. Schools we work with to reach our families within Manchester include St Marys C of E Primary, Claremont Primary, Rolls Crescent, Holy Name Primary, Martenscroft Nursery, St Wilfrid’s Primary, St Philips Primary, St. Margret’s Primary and Castlefield Campus. We also work with the following Trafford schools, St Alphonsus, Old Trafford Academy, St Hilda’s, Kings Road, Seymour Grove and St John Vianney’s. Further to our work with schools we also provide support through local community services such as Home Start, Health visitors, social workers and early help hubs. To date this year, we have supported 2187 children and 1197 adult with parcels to assist with school holiday hunger. We know that school holidays are a period of time where parents struggle with the additional costs of feeding their children, as well as providing suitable activities to keep children entertained at home. Without our support these families would not have had the food they needed to support themselves during these holiday periods. Having access to our 5-day parcel which contained breakfast, lunches and snacks families benefited from the alleviation of food poverty, faced less pressure on household finances and increased ability of being able to feed themselves and their children. Furthermore, recent research has reported that one in five children in England between the ages of five and eight do not have access to books at home. Our Holiday parcels included reading books, art packs and science packs enabling parents to interact with their children and provide suitable age-appropriate activities, further reducing the financial costs to parents. ## **SUMMER ACTIVITY LUNCHES** During the summer months we also partnered with local youth organisation 84 Youth and neighbourhood officers by means of providing 250 packed lunches to children attending half term play activities within the local parks and green spaces and the Active Street Games. We would like to thank Big Life Centre, Hulme for use of their kitchen facilities and extend our thanks to their volunteer Sam for the supply of freshly grown tomatoes and cucumbers which we used on the children’s lunches. 10 ## **WINTER FOOD INITIATIVES** Aside from our generic foodbank services, during Christmas 2021 we distributed a total of 635 seasonal food Hampers to older residents, care leavers, families and individuals living within our localities. Without the generous support of our corporate partners and sponsors Co-op, Asda Hulme, Tesco Stretford, Chinese Christian Church, City in the Community, One Manchester, BT Open Reach and the general public many families would have struggled this year. We thank all those involved in supporting us with our winter food initiatives. Without this support these individuals and families would not have had the food they needed to support themselves during the holiday season. Both Covid19 and the cuts to the Universal Credit uplift had a hugely problematic impact on many within our communities. With demand on our services growing significantly on previous years. This in itself illustrates the ongoing need for our services which, sadly, shows no sign of abating. Through our partnership work with schools and local care providers we were able to reach out to families struggling financially at this time. We anecdotally know the importance of our winter food initiatives - for example One parent stated _“What a brilliant reminder that people care about my family. The box of food and goodies lifted our hearts.”_ Inclusive of our seasonal food hampers we provide 125 Christmas meals in a box containing all the fresh ingredients needed to make a Christmas day meal. Each box also contained a £10 gift card to enable families to purchase fresh meat or vegetarian alternative to compliment the items provided. This work was supported through donations of fresh produce from Unicorn Grocery, Chorlton and Fareshare Manchester. We know from feedback this initiative was well received. One family wrote to say _“Thank you so much. My family have never had a Christmas Dinner with all the trimmings before. We really appreciate it.”_ 11 ## MORE THEN FOOD PROJECTS ## **SCHOOL UNIFORM PILOT** During the summer months of July and August the foodbank received a number of telephone calls from stressed parents, worrying about the cost of school uniforms versus the need to pay bills and provide food for their families. Although we tried to link families in with existing uniform providers it quickly became apparent that parents had missed the deadline for referrals. As a direct response to the identified needs, we sought funding and set up a pilot school uniform project. The pilot consisted of seven local primary schools, a community Sure Start Centre and pupil referral unit with whom we already had close working relations. Through the pastoral care teams, we were able to work with the schools to identify the families in need of support. The pilot was launched in October 2021. In January 2022 we extended the uniform project to cover an additional five local high schools. Between October 2021 and March 2022, we supported 17 individual children with school uniform support. The reasons for support varied for example in one family the children were missing from education because the children only had one set of uniform and the washing machine had broken so mum was unable to clean the uniforms. An additional set of uniform was provided to enable the children to return to school. Another child was truanting from school as he did not have the correct uniform and didn’t want to attend school for fear of being in trouble for having incorrect uniform or being made fun of by his peers for being poor. Uniform items were provided to enable the child to return to education in the correct uniform. Feedback from parents has been positive with many parents reporting how grateful they were for the support _. “Thank you for helping with the uniforms, I don’t know what I would have done without this support.”_ Another parent reported _“you don’t know how much this means. I can stop stressing now knowing my children have all they need.”_ 12 ## **PRE-LOADED MOBILE SIM CARDS** This year we have seen a significant number of individuals disconnecting from support services. Upon exploration it came to light that many individuals were struggling financially to afford access to telecommunications. Many individuals no longer had a landline telephone and had swapped to pay as you go mobile providers as an alternative means to staying connected. However, the Covid 19 pandemic and the reversal of the Universal Credit uplift left many struggling. As a result, we came across more and more individuals selfdisconnecting. This proved extremely challenging when trying to assist individuals with support. The lack of means to communicate impacted on the speed in which services could be delivered. In order to combat these challenges, we teamed up with Vodaphone who provided us with pre-loaded sim cards. We were able to use these sim cards to enable families to reconnect to services. The sim cards provided them with six months of free text messaging, calling credit and mobile data. ## **CHRISTMAS GIFTS** Christmas 2021 we received unprecedented referrals for Christmas toy support, 902 toy sacks were provided to struggling families compared to 360 in the previous year. It is with thanks to The Toy Appeal and Network Rail who donated gifts that we were able to meet the demand this year. It is becoming increasingly apparent that year on year this support is much needed. Feedback from our schools and community care providers is vital in informing the support we offer our residents: _“I received support for a family with three young children, one of whom had complex needs. The support from the foodbank was vital as a means of support for Mum, who was a single parent, following a house move._ _The new home meant that Mum had more space for furniture and toys however there was a cost implication. As Mum was a carer for her child, her income was low and she found it_ 13 _difficult to manage purchasing necessary items, for example new school uniform as the children had moved school, and other items for the new house as well as everyday essentials. Support from the foodbank by way of food and toys at Christmas, meant that Mum was able to buy items the family required, such as new uniform for the children without the need to consider how she would prioritise this along with buying food and other essential items. Christmas gifts were also given to the family, and Mum expressed her heartfelt gratitude that_ _the children would have toys and books. These were played with on Christmas day, and moving forward. Providing enough suitable toys for the children had been extremely difficult due to the low income and a distinct lack of space in the previous home. It was great to see the difference that having stimulation and different things to play with made to the children._ _Without the help of the foodbank, Mum would have struggled to manage and I feel that the stress and anxiety that she experienced would have been exacerbated. The help that she received was therefore vital at this time. As I was able to help Mum applying for the correct benefits, she is now in a better position to manage moving forward._ _This is one of a number of families who have been supported by the foodbank - I cannot explain the significant, positive difference that it makes to children and families and hope that this will continue”_ In addition to toy sacks and in partnership with Manchester Power House and Trafford Placed Based Integration team we were also able to support 67 care leavers with food hampers and Gifts sets kindly provided by Lush, Trafford centre. We also received referrals for support for older residents. 122 received winter Care Hampers filled with treats and winter essentials. These were partially resourced and prepared by staff and students at Manchester Metropolitan University. With assistance from our local Ward councillors and neighbourhood officers the care packages were delivered in time for Christmas. 14 ## RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS Through our contacts in the ambulance services, we learnt of an older resident who had been assaulted and mugged within the local community. The paramedics raised funds to replace money stolen, whilst Bridging the Gap provided a Fruit hamper. The resident was pleasantly surprised and stated her _“faith in humanity had been restored.”_ She was pleased to see there were _“still good people around.”_ Another older resident came to our attention, through partnership working with local Councillors and care provider. We discovered the gentleman had been isolated due to Covid19 and was turning 90 years of age. The community rallied together to arrange a small surprise birthday gathering to help celebrate the special day. With thanks to local Charity Cake 4 Kids, we were able to put in a special request for the resident to receive a celebratory birthday cake. 15 ## FINANCE & ACCOUNTING We ensure our sustainability by using a diverse range of income streams, these include partnerships with local supermarkets, schools, churches, individual and corporate donations and grant funding. During this financial year our income decreased slightly compared to previous year. However, a large proportion of our income remains as a direct response to the covid19 pandemic. Expenditure has also continued to rise due to our increased activities and staff requirements, also as a direct impact of the Covid19 pandemic and pressure placed on services and provisions. The Charity’s accounts were prepared under the receipts and payment method and were examined by an independent examiner. ## **PRINCIPLE SOURCES OF FUNDING** Notable source of funding (£1000 and above) for year ending 2021/2022 |**FUNDING**|**AMOUNT**| |---|---| |Manchester CityCouncil|£8,163| |Trussell Trust|£6,864| |Coop|£5,052| |Fareshare|£5,000| |One Manchester|£3,000| |MCFC CommunityFund|£2,500| |YappCharitable Trust|£2,500| |PennyAppeal|£2,500| |Arnold Clark|£2,500| |84 Youth|£2,000| |Manchester United Supporters' Trust|£2,602| |Semble Network|£1,800| |Manchester BME Network|£1,000| |84 Youth|£2,000| |Local Giving Donations|£36,978| 16 ## **ACCOUNT OVERVIEW** |||**Accounts 2021/2022**|**Accounts 2021/2022**||**2020/2021**| |---|---|---|---|---|---| ||**Unrestricted**|**Restricted**|**Designated**|**TOTAL**|**Last Year**| ||**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**| |Income|£54,182|£46,882|-|£101,064|£153,611| |Expenditure|(£20,008)|(£54,348)|-|(£74,356)|(£70,713)| |Surplus/(Deficit)|£34,174|(£7,466)|-|£26,708|£82,808| |Transfers|-|-|-|-|-| |At 1stApril|£18,008|£15,981|£82,500|£116,489|£33,591| |At 31 March|£52,182|£8,515|£82,500|£143,197|£116,489| ## **RESERVES POLICY** The Charity continues to operates restricted reserves in the instance whereby funds are raised for a specific activity/service or at a request of a donor. The trustees have ringfenced a dedicated pot of reserves from unrestricted monies to ensure sustainability and to assist with operational costs in the event of another pandemic, disaster or reduction of monetary income. It is envisaged that we will continue to build restricted monies to ensure we have 12 – 18 months of reserves at any given time. ## **FOOD AND HYGIENE ASSETS** The Charity relies substantially on donations of food and hygiene products from the general public, including local business and corporate partners. Donated items for 2020/2021 amounted to 61,909.45Kg (61.9 tonnes), at a nominal value of £146,725 The trustees are extremely grateful to all our funders, donors, fundraisers and members of the public. It is because of their generosity and trust in our Charity that we have been able to support those in need. 17 ## **AWARD AND RECOGNITIONS 2021-2022** In November 2021 our Trustee Michelle McHale received a Thank You Award from Manchester Mayor Cllr Tommy Judge in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the Hulme communities during Covid-19 pandemic. Manchester Be Proud Finalists 2022 Hulme Food response Partnership In March 2022 Bridging the Gap (Manchester) and the Hulme Food Response Partnership were nominated for a Manchester Be Proud Award. The partnership was recognised for its response, services and commitment to the community of Hulme during the Covid-19 pandemic. 18 ## **DECLARATION** The Board of Trustees declare that they have approved the report above and that this is a true reflection on services provided and funding obtained. Signed on behalf of the Charity’s Trustees **Signature: Name:** Marie Hawkins **Position:** Acting Chair of Trustees **Date:** 01 December 2022 19 CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examiner's report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner's Repart Report lo the tIU5teosl members ol Brld8inB the Gap IM3nchestÈr On •ccountslor th• y••r •nd•d 31 March 2022 c￿rItY no 111 •nvl 1170952 S•1 out ofi p•ys l ￿pOrr to the trustees on my examlnarion of the accounts ol the above Chir I'the Tru$t'l for the year ended 31 March 2022. Ilasponslbllhl•s •nd b•sls ol A5 the charlty trustees, you are responsible lor the prepar8tlon olthe accounts lft r•port 3c£ordonce wlth the Ch4rllle5 Act 20111"the Act"). I report In respect of my examlnatlofi of the Trust's accounts carrled out under se¢iion 145 of the 2011 Act Intl In ¢arryln8 Out my exèmin4¢ion. I have followed all the appllcable Dlrertlon$ 8l¥en by the Charlty Comrnlsslon und¢r 5ettion 14515llbl ol the Act. Irthp•nd•nt examlner's I have completed mv examln4tSon. I conflrm that no mèterl•l matters have come to stat•m•nt my Ittentlon Sn connectSon with the examlnotlofi whlth 8lves me cause to bellev¢ that In. any materlal rtspe¢t'. the *ccountlng record5 w•r• ijot kept It) itcwd•nc• wlth 5•rt1on 130 of the Art., or the accounts dld not accord wlth the •¢¢ountlft8 records., or the accounts dld not comply wlth ihe applicable iequiTemtnts tont*rnln8 the form and ¢ontent of accounts s¢t out In the Char*ties (Accounts and Reports) Re8ulatloni 2008 other than any requlrement that the account5 8lve a'true and falrf vlew whkh 55 not a m4tttr ¢onsldertd a5 Part of an Independent ex•mlnatlon. I have no conrerns ond have corne •cr05s no other matters in connection wlth th¢ exarnlnatlon to whlch attentlon should be drawn In this report Sn order to enable a proper understandlnu of the accountsto be reached. Sl¢n•d.. D•t•.' 0511£ 2otL Felkity Klni Rele￿nt ptof•soloftal quallfi￿tlo￿lSI or body Ilf •nvl: ACA AddTO¥S: 185tailor* Court, Bo¥tyTracty Devon TQ13 9GA Octobor 2018 IER 20 CIIARITY COWIJISSION FQR El￿￿A￿) WALES th•a4p (M￿¢￿•m•1 Al?QPJ2 Recelpts and payments accounts CC16a JlbtM•rch 2021 F•rth• wilJdfr•m T• Section A Receipts and payments lundi t4th•rdMrMI •iirtrt•d luv41 Winat•d fvr Totalfvnth y•4r tolh•fiMp•i¢ Ily Coop CFC(￿M￿￿¥ Fwd T￿11 P•ThiyApwil 54.1 ioi.NJ lJ,S•b sub t#tollGioss tncotnetror ARI 54,1•1 Stsb t•t#l ioi.o P• LX5 Chfliir LIM t4￿1PMhl 1,415 1.847 045 Svb total NJ A$5el •ndlTrv•*m•nt pur¢h•ws. • i•bl• Svb total Totalpayments y.ys 14Jy• 70.713 pirtolrnr•lpeJ/lpqyrntatsJ ,174 26, 6Caih fvndithst y•ii •nd C•shfvsJds thlsyéwend 1516 143.191 21 Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the perSod Vnr*51rl£t*d R•ilrlct•d funds lunos #l Cash fundi Tot•lMihfvn VnrMlrlct•d R•blrtct¢d Iwnds BI Oth•r fftonrtwy aM•ty ¥alu• O•iall• il•pW•MTr P•i4111 B4 rntaln•d for chIrtt￿l own ui• siin•tuf• Prlnt 14Vn• O•t• of 4ppro¥ M￿helpe McHale BEM 05 Dec 202 22