2021-03-31-accounts

Trustees' Annual Report					for theperiod
**From **	Period start date			To	Period end date
	Day 01	Month 04	Year 2020		31	Month 3	Year 2021

Section A Reference and administration details

Charity name Other names charity is known by Registered charity number (if any) Charity's principal address	Food and Friendship	Food and Friendship
	Food and Friendship
	1178067
	Hove Methodist Church
	Portland Road
	Hove
	Postcode	BN3 5DR

Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20	Trustee name	Office (if any)	Dates acted if not for whole **year **	Name of person (or body) entitled to appoint trustee (ifany)
	Rachel Elizabeth Richards	Chair
	Karen Head	Treasurer
	Jacqueline Suzanne Edwards	Vice Chair
	Michael Hill

Names of the trustees for the charity, if any, (for example, any custodian trustees)

Name Dates acted if not for whole year

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Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)

Type of adviser Name Address

Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)

Section B Structure, governance and management

Description of the charity’s trusts

Type of governing document (eg. trust deed, constitution) How the charity is constituted

Constitution

Association

• (eg. trust, association, company)

Elected by the members Trustee selection methods

• (eg. appointed by, elected by)

Additional governance issues (Optional information)

You may choose to include additional information, where relevant, about:

• policies and procedures adopted for the induction and training of trustees;

• the charity’s organisational structure and any wider network with which the charity works;

All existing trustees have read and signed the relevant charity commission documents pertaining to the duties of a trustee. Food and Friendship holds annually updated policies in the following areas:

Health and Safety – including Risk Assessment Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults Equality and Diversity Data Protection and Privacy

In addition, trustees, volunteers and staff attend emergency first aid training on a yearly basis.

• relationship with any related parties;

• trustees’ consideration of major risks and the system and procedures to manage them.

Section C Objectives and activities

Summary of the objects of the charity set out in its governing document

To promote social inclusion for the public benefit by preventing people from becoming socially excluded, relieving the needs of those people who are socially excluded and assisting them to integrate into society through the provision of, but not restricted to, low-cost lunch clubs.

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Our main activities are running a low-cost lunch club twice a week from Hove Methodist Church for older people and adults with learning disabilities. We aim to tackle social isolation and loneliness and support people to develop new friendships and feel more connected to their communities. Alongside this we aim to offer advice sessions after lunch to signpost beneficiaries who might benefit from health, social and financial support organisations. We also aim to provide a low cost nutritional meal using food donated by the charity FareShare Sussex to reduce food waste. We provide regular volunteering opportunities, some for older people and people with learning disabilities.

Summary of the main activities undertaken for the for older people and people with learning disabilities. public benefit in relation to these objects (include within Food and Friendship trustees have had regard to the guidance this section the statutory issued by the charity commission on public benefit. declaration that trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit)

Additional details of objectives and activities (Optional information)

You may choose to include further statements, where relevant, about:

• policy on grantmaking;

• policy programme related investment;

• contribution made by volunteers.

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Section D Achievements and performance

Summary of the main achievements of the charity during the year		The COVID pandemic impacted Food and Friendship very hard but we were able to adapt quickly to support those in need. Between March 2020 and April 2021 Food and Friendship volunteers prepared and delivered in excess of 7000 hot lunches and food boxes to over 150 isolated Brighton and Hove residents who were struggling to access food. To put this into context in terms of our impact as part of city-wide meal and food parcel provision, Brighton and Hove Food Partnership’s ‘Hungry at Christmas’ crowdfund campaign allocated us 7% of the proceeds. Spring and Summer On the 13thMarch 2020 the trustees of Food and friendship decided to close lunch club as the COVID pandemic approached. Our beneficiaries were mainly older people and adults with learning disabilities so were extremely vulnerable to becoming seriously ill. Within a matter of weeks we had adapted to become a meal delivery service delivering hot meals and food parcels across the city. Welacked the resources to deliver and prepare meals for all our beneficiariesso trustees quickly assessed individual needs and circumstances andprioritised those who had very little support or access to food.We know from feedback just how isolated some our beneficiaries were and what impact the bi-weekly meal deliveries had in providing them with comfort and reassurance. Having someone to talk to on the doorstep was a lifeline to many people who in some cases had limited social contact all week. As well as assessing the needs of our beneficiaries, we also had to problem-solve various obstacles. We had to completely re-think the type of meals we could prepare that were deliverable as well as navigate problems such as the lack of insulated bags, food containers, hand sanitiser and paper delivery bags. We wanted to deliver meals hot so our beneficiaries could eat them straight away, so we had to get them delivered quickly. This meant we needed a lot of volunteers all arriving to collect the meals at specific times to maintain social distancing. There were newly written COVID safety rules concerning food deliveries which changed on a weekly basis and initially involved a complicated double-bagged system of plastic bags with an outer bag bleached with its handles folded down. Some people were bleaching the packaging of every tin and packet they received. In addition to this we had to work out how to adapt to the requirements of social distancing in the kitchen and church building, resulting in a greatly reduced kitchen team. We were able to overcome these challenges with the help of volunteers successfully delivered over 4000 hot meals and food parcels by the October. Autumn and Winter We had hoped to re-open lunch clubs in person in November but this coincided with the second wave of COVID, so trustees decided to send out food parcels to families experiencing food poverty referred to us via the charity CHOMP. We were able to support

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Section D Achievements and erformance p

over 55 adults and children over the Winter and also send food parcels to some of our regular beneficiaries with the support of trustees who packed and sorted donations. This culminated in a Christmas present goody bag donated by Waitrose Hove customers for every family who had received food parcels.

On Christmas day, we supported Hove Methodist Church to prepare over 150 Christmas lunches complete with presents and crackers donated by Good Times pubs, PACA, Roedean and St Christophers schools. Good times pubs also donated vegetables they had prepped but couldn’t use after the Christmas gathering rules were changed at the last minute. The meals were delivered to isolated people who spend Christmas alone and who would under normal circumstances have come to the church on Christmas day.

In January we had hoped again to be able to open to small groups for in house lunches. It quickly became apparent that COVID rates were increasing and with the new lockdown, we felt the need for hot meals and a friendly face was as important as ever, particularly during the post-Christmas winter dark days of January and February. We continued with our hot meal and food parcel deliveries right through to and beyond the end of the financial year.

Friendship

Alongside the food provision, our trustees and some volunteers donated hundreds of hours calling all our beneficiaries every week on the phone to check in on them and make sure they were ok. They were able to signpost beneficiaries to other sources of support such as Brighton Cooking Club and connect them with other providers as well as provide reassurance and a friendly voice. Some volunteers are still calling at the end of 2021. The phone calls were a huge part of our COVID response and they glued together the wider lunch club family, particularly those who did not require food but really appreciated the friendship.

Some of our volunteers met up with small groups of beneficiaries with learning disabilities in local parks such as Hove Park and Preston Park during the Spring and Summer when the ‘rule of 6’ was in operation. This was an important social ‘anchor’ for many people who found that their usual social support network of not just our lunch club but every other club was closed. Some people with learning disabilities were literally just walking the streets in all weathers even when café’s and restaurants were allowed to reopen because their support organisations deemed the risk of catching COVID was too high. The impact of the social isolation is almost certain to have played a part in levels of increased mental health problems and anxiety that we are seeing a year later in some of our beneficiaries.

Beneficiaries

In Brighton and Hove in 2020, according to the BHFP, 5460 people required emergency food support. We chose to respond to the overwhelming need for hot meals and food by extending the range of beneficiaries from older people and adults with learning

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disabilities to include anyone who was referred to us who needed help with food. We also extended our support to include residents of some City Council seniors housing schemes who found themselves very isolated after scheme managers were withdrawn. In those early days of the pandemic when support services were still forming and assessing need it was very easy for vulnerable people to fall through the cracks. In one example, one resident only had two tins of baked beans in their cupboard and were using cut up tea towels in place of toilet paper. We were able to respond very quickly by delivering meals and essential supplies to the resident and others in that scheme. We also increased our geographical reach by supporting people as far west as Hollingbury in Brighton and as far east as Mile Oak and Hangleton. In summary, our main beneficiaries were: Older people with limited family/friends/neighbours Adults with learning disabilities Residents of city council schemes and housing associations for older people People experiencing mental health problems referred by Lighthouse and the City Council People in temporary housing referred by RISE because of domestic violence Families experiencing food poverty referred by CHOMP Members of Hove Methodist Church Most referrals came from: Mutual Aid groups Brighton and Hove Food partnership Brighton and Hove City Council People self-referring after seeing our details on our website/BHFP website/Ageing Well Directory Local social media posts City Council seniors housing schemes including Hazelholt, Evelyn Court and Sanders House CHOMP RISE Time to Talk befriending Doctors surgeries across the city Lloyds bank Hove and Portslade Hove Methodist Church Main outcomes of our meal delivery service Bi-weekly nutritious hot meals that did not require heating up Food parcels of surplus fresh fruit, vegetables, bread, packets and tinned items and donated Government Food boxes

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Twice-weekly conversation on the doorstep with a volunteer deliverer Regular phone calls for support and conversation Signposting people to other support services such as Brighton Cooking Club and the Local Discretionary Action Fund. Indirect benefits Some of our beneficiaries were being supported by relatives who themselves got ill, so we were able to step in and provide shortterm meals to fill the gap. Feeding in to the City-wide emergency food response co-ordinated by Brighton and Hove Food Partnership. We were a small part of a large response and we were able to co-ordinate efforts and refer to other organisations covering different days and geographical areas. Our profile was increased by increased social media and press reports which we hope will enable more referrals of isolated people in future who will benefit from attending the lunch clubs. Partnerships that made our response possible Volunteers At the start of the pandemic, half of the usual volunteer team were immediately shielding because of their age and health conditions and others had to stay at home to look after children who were no longer at school. We were left with a skeleton team but very quickly, we were overwhelmed with offers of help from people who had been furloughed, students, working people, members of Hove Methodist Church and parents from the local schools. The volunteer team drove, cycled and walked the meals across the city twice a week, some giving up hours of their time to chat on the doorstep. Others helped prepare meals and package them. Feedback from volunteers also shows how important the activity was for them during this time. As well as the meals, we were often able to send treats out with the meals thanks to volunteers who baked valentines love heart cup cakes and biscuits individually wrapped, hand-made friendship bracelets and friendship postcards. At Christmas, Stanford Avenue Methodist Church Knitting group made dolls that were sent out to chomp families and other volunteers sourced gifts such as toiletries and advent calendars. We also received support from volunteers with our website as well as many donated hours producing the Food and Friendship calendar which was sent out to all our beneficiaries and which we hope helped them to still feel a part of the Food and Friendship family. Thank you to Gaby. Hove Methodist Church Hove Methodist Church were very supportive from the start. They gave us the ok to turn their crush hall into a food bank and storage

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Section D Achievements and erformance p

facility for our packaging and to use the kitchens to prepare the meals. They were a safe and supportive space and they mobilised their wider networks which resulted in volunteers offering to help deliver and raise funds for us. They were responsible for coordinating a short film about our COVID response that will be an important resource to look back and reflect upon in years to come.

Brighton and Hove Food Partnership

BHFP were very supportive and gave us equipment and food they had sourced in bulk and helped us to problem-solve in those first few weeks. They mapped the city-wide response and ran a series of online emergency food response sessions that co-ordinated support. They were also very helpful in sourcing parking exemption letters for all our deliverers and fundraising to pay for extra costs as well as helping us to navigate through the extra health and safety protocols in an ever-changing landscape.

Food Donations

FareShare continued to send us food throughout the pandemic which enabled us to continue our deliveries. They had many challenges of their own because of a lack of volunteers and a huge increase in demand for surplus food. We were also supported by other organisations who gave us donations of food that we could either use in our meals or re-distribute to vulnerable people. They included:

Tesco Hove Waitrose Hove Brighton Food Factory Good Times Pubs The Cheeseman The Flour Pot Bakery Stoneham Bakehouse M & B Meats Blakes Butchers Bookers Cash and Carry The Salvation Army Hove Seafront Residents Assoc food bank Pale Green Dot for boxes of fruit and veg

Local businesses

Zoe Rodgers and her team from the Good Times pubs Railway Tavern prepared 3 course hot meals for all the 42 residents of City council seniors housing Hazelholt several times during the early pandemic, including one on Easter Sunday that volunteers

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delivered to the residents. Alongside this, Good Times pubs collected gifts to be given to beneficiaries at Christmas, and helped us with our Christmas day lunch. Bungards Funeral directors sponsored us for a second year running and provided gifts to donate as well as raising money for us. We had a very supportive and enjoyable partnership with them and in March 2021 we welcomed new sponsors Kingsway care.

Schools

We have good relationships with local schools and regularly invite young people into our lunch clubs for the cross-generational benefits that these visits bring to young and old. In previous years we have had young people on community placements from NCS, Roedean school and The Princes Trust but obviously that couldn’t happen this year. Roedean, St Christophers and Portslade Aldridge Community Academy were still keen to help us and collected food items and gifts to be sent out to families we were supporting at Christmas who were experiencing food poverty. We hope to build on these links when we are able to re-open.

Income

The narrative of the pandemic can be clearly read in our accounts. We had virtually no spend on transport but increased costs in equipment which was largely packaging materials. We lost our income overnight so were entirely reliant on funding and donations. We would like to thank all our funders for their quick response and the way in which funding was made available so quickly to support us. Emergency grants were provided by: BHCC COVID Fund and Winter fund Sussex Community Foundation Ernest Kleinwort Francis Winham Foundation CAF covid fund Awards for all Brighton and Hove Food Partnership Neighbourly Our reserves going into the new financial year are able to fund our ongoing work. We would also like to acknowledge the donations we received from people who contributed to our Paypal and Givey fundraising campaign. These contributions, many from people who had very little to give and ranged from a couple of pounds to £500 were very gratefully received and we were very touched by this generosity. We would like to acknowledge donations made by organisations such as Hove Rotary Club, Good Times pubs and Waitrose Hove.

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We would also like to thank councillors Chris Henry and Carmen Appich for donating their ward budgets to us this January.

As a small charity we played a not insignificant part in helping isolated and vulnerable people in Brighton and Hove get through this unprecedented global event. We aimed to help our beneficiaries feel supported with food and friendship as much as we possibly could during this unusual year when we lost so many people we loved. Everything we were able to achieve during this time was because of the generosity and support of the whole community, from funders and individuals right through to schools, local businesses, church communities, organisations and local people.

Food and friendship trustees acknowledge and thank them for their support.

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Section E Financial review

Brief statement of the charity’s policy on reserves

The net funds of the Charity at 31.3.2021 were £22,367 and this is required to fund our ongoing work.

Details of any funds materially in deficit

Further financial review details (Optional information)

You may choose to include additional information, where relevant about:

• the charity’s principal sources of funds (including any fundraising);

• how expenditure has supported the key objectives of the charity;

• investment policy and objectives including any ethical investment policy adopted.

Section F Other optional information

Section G Declaration

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees

Signature(s) Full name(s) Position (eg Secretary, Chair, etc) Date	R Richards	K Head
	Rachel Richards	Karen Head
	Chair	Treasurer
	02.11.2021
	02.11.2021

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Food and Friendship CIO No (if any) Receipts and payments accounts CC16a For the period Apr-20 Mar-21 To from

Section A Receipts and payments	Section A Receipts and payments	Section A Receipts and payments
A1 Receipts	Unrestricted funds to the nearest £		Restricted funds to the nearest £		Endowment funds to the nearest £	Total funds to the nearest £		Last year to the nearest £
Grants	3,000		26,328			29,328		14,000
WeeklyIntakes	2,734		-			2,734		8,494
Donations	16,583		6			16,590		5,294
Raffle	-		-			-		1,332
Bank Interest	-		-			-		-
	138		-			138		738
						- -
Sub total(Gross income for AR)	22,456		26,334		- - - - -	48,791		29,857
A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table).
	-
	-							-
Sub total	-							-
Total receipts A3 Payments
								29,857
Transport	73		431			504		6,977
Ingredients	-		909			909		2,347
Sessional Worker	8,035		15,835			23,870		22,815
FairshareFees	-		253			253		850
Volunteer Expenses	-		638			638		153
After Lunchactivities-entertainment	-		-			-		499
Publicity, administrationandfundraising	416		1,129			1,545		1,165
Training	-		-			-		14
Equipment	1,000		2,758			3,758		367
Miscellaneous **Sub total **	62		259			320		1,008
	9,586		22,212		- - - - - -	31,798		36,195
A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table)
	-
	-
**Sub total **	-							-
Total payments Net of receipts/(payments) A5 Transfers between funds A6 Cash funds last year end Cash funds this year end
								36,195
	12,870		4,122			16,993		- 6,338
	-		-		- -	- 5,374		-
	4,924		449					11,712
	17,795		4,572		-	22,367		5,374

Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the	Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the	Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the	Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the	period	period
Categories Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees B1 Cash funds B2 Other monetary assets B3 Investment assets B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use B5 Liabilities	Details Cash in bank c/fwd 2020 Cash in bank after receipts & payments Apr 2020/ Mar 2021 Total cash funds (agree balances w ith receipts and payments account(s)) Details		Unrestricted funds to nearest £	Restricted funds to nearest £		Endowment funds to nearest £
			4,924 12,870 -	449		-
				4,122		-
				-		-
			17,795 OK Unrestricted funds to nearest £	4,572		-
						OK
						Endowment funds to nearest £
			- - - - - -	-		-
				-		-
				-		-
				-		-
				-		-
				-		-
	Details		Fund to which asset belongs	Cost (optional)		Current value (optional)
				-		-
				-		-
				-		-
				-		-
				-		-
	Details		Fund to which asset belongs	Cost (optional)		Current value (optional)
				-		-
				-		-
				-		-
				-		-
				-		-
				-		-
				-		-
				-		-
				-		-
	Details K Head N/A Signature R Richards		Fund to which liability relates Amount due (optional) Karen Head Print Name Rachel Richards			When due (optional)
						Date of approval
	R Richards		Rachel Richards			02.11.2021
	K Head		Karen Head			02.11.2021

Food and Friendship

Independent examiner's report on the accounts

Section A Independent Examiner’s Report Report to the trustees/ Food and Friendship CIO members of On accounts for the year 31 March 2021 Charity no 1178067 ended (if any) Set out on pages (remember to include the page numbers of additional sheets)

I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 31/03/2021.

• Responsibilities and As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation basis of report of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).

I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.

Independent examiner's statement

I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:

• accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or

• the accounts do not accord with the accounting records

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

• Please delete the words in the brackets if they do not apply.

Date: 02.11.2021 Signed: Name: Chris Hill Relevant professional FCA – Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants qualification(s) or body (if any): Address: 177 Nevill Road Hove BN3 7QN

October 2018

1

IER

Section B Disclosure

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

Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose .

Not applicable.

October 2018

2

IER