## **Manchester Sikh Foundation**
**Charitable Incorporated Organisation**
**Charity Number 1191992**
**Working Name: Feed My City**
**Annual Report and Accounts**
**For the period 1 April 2023 – 31 March 2024**
**MANCHESTER SIKH FOUNDATION**
**Report of the trustees for the year ended 31st March 2024**
**Trustees** : Mr Sukhbir Singh (Chair)
Mr Resham Gulab Singh Mr Sukhsimran Singh Mrs Jasvant Bhadare Ramandeep Kaur - Appointed 01 October 2023
## **Charity Office:** Unit 2
63-65 Beswick Street Manchester M4 7HR
## **Independent Examiner:**
HHK Accountancy Services Limited Suite 212, Oakland House 21 Hope Carr Road
Leigh WN7 3ET
## **Charity Objectives:**
## **The key activities of the Manchester Sikh Foundation are:**
## **The prevention or relief of food poverty in North West England through:**
- Emergency food kitchen to cook, serve and deliver hot meals and dry food parcels.
- Working in partnership with local food banks.
- Delivering hot meals to those in need.
- Mobile food van, cooking and serving hot nourishing meals in deprived areas.
## **The advancement of employment, education & health for the Sikh Community by:**
- Employment workshops, Job Applications CV writing and skills development.
- Improve education opportunities by working with schools, colleges, and universities.
- Working with NHS, and other agencies to improve health promotion and wellbeing.
## **The promotion of religious harmony for the public benefit through:**
- Raising awareness, mutual understanding and knowledge sharing about faiths.
- Creating relationships and respect for the beliefs of different faiths and none.
- Working together to support religious freedom and to prevent hate crime.
## **Structure, Governance and Management**
The charity was formed as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation on 26 October 2020. The charity is governed by its constitution which is a CIO Foundation. It is governed by its trustees who meet regularly. It is managed by a Board of Trustees, a management team, and volunteers.
During the year we recruited an additional trustee, Ramandeep Rai, who replaced Ambrat Singh, to whom we are very grateful for her very significant contribution during her time with the charity. Our wider management team has also been strengthened.
## **Progress and Achievements**
We continue to make strong progress in line with the objectives of the charity in challenging times. The demand for all of our services is increasing as we continue to operate in the most deprived areas of Greater Manchester and as we serve many more people from increasingly diverse communities.
We have significantly overachieved to meet more of the needs of the service users around food poverty. Since our inception in late 2018, we have provided over 325,000 hot meals and over 12,000 emergency food parcels. The number of people who have accessed our service in the last 12 months increased from the previous year and we continue to operate between 09:00 to 22:00, 365 days of the year.
The 365 days a year emergency food provision is extensively used by many partners for referrals, especially late into the evenings and weekends, providing a crucial service to our partner agencies and those they support.
We have met these challenges with an increased number of volunteers, recruitment of two full-time staff through grant funding from the National Lottery Community Fund’s Reaching Communities programme, and significantly increased partnership working, enabling us to do more.
We have successfully increased our partnerships with many organisations and these now include: Local Authorities, Mustard Tree, NHS Care Navigators, agencies supporting the homeless, Asylum Seekers, Housing Associations, those supporting offenders, Citizens’ Advice Bureaux, Churches, Food Banks and many, many more. We deliver several dry food bags on a weekly basis for onward delivery to those in emergency need. The agencies also refer people in emergency need of food, especially late afternoon and at weekends, as we can provide emergency food very quickly.
We continue our hugely supportive partnership with Stuarts, a logistics company, for delivering hot meals and dry food parcels. They deliver, still with no cost, two days each week and this makes our service delivery work much more effectively.
The project under the MSF umbrella, ‘Sikh Studies’, runs every Tuesday at Stretford Grammar School, teaching Oral & Written Punjabi for 5 to 70 year olds and is continuing to go from strength to strength. Over 100 people attended the 4 classes over the year. The majority of the students are of Sikh faith but we welcome people from all faiths and none.
We have established a new project, “Sikh United Mothers”, which is an older women’s group to reduce loneliness and isolation. This group meet on a weekly basis at a local community centre with around 40 older women, sharing food, going on outings, Yoga and swimming lessons and many more activities taking place regularly. They also have significant support with the provision of health, financial and other advice.
While there have been many successes through the past 12 months, there are nonetheless improvements and refinements to be made in the coming year. This year, our mobile food van was involved in an accident. Whilst there were no injuries, the financial impact was over £10,000 for insurance renewal and repairs. We did not have funds to cover this so the mobile food van operation was suspended and the van returned to the owner. We have had limited success on establishing our youth leadership and sports activities programme so we plan to give greater energy and focus to this area over the next 12 months.
This year, we have been able to improve the structure for volunteers across our organisation. Our structure is made up of several different teams, enabling volunteers to take ownership and develop their skills within a workstream. This enables them to make
greater contributions to the charity while supporting their career development and home environment.
Our staff and large volunteer team listen to feedback we receive from partners and service users, as well as give their own feedback, to ensure that we look to develop and change the way we operate to be more effective.
We have a volunteer who has developed an App to enable the volunteer coordination, logistics and management of the services we deliver to work more efficiently, enabling us to get food to those in need more effectively.
Our volunteers, staff, core management team and trustees are from the community and are at the heart of everything we do. Many of the users of our service become volunteers as they feel that, after receiving support from us, they would like to contribute. This enables them to gain many skills from the Feed My City operations, strengthening their knowledge, resilience, and independence, ready for them to enter the world of work. Our volunteer base is diverse in terms of race, religion, gender and ethnicity, which brings with it many beneficial skills, knowledge and expertise.
The Trustees, staff and volunteers are proud that the charity does not accept cash donations or make any cash payments and all transactions are via bank payments. This allows for full transparency, and facilitates straightforward auditing and accounting processes.
The dedication, contribution and diversity of our volunteers was recognised with the King’s Award for voluntary service in November 2023. We were thrilled to receive this award, the highest to be given to volunteer groups in the UK, the MBE for volunteer groups, so it is a truly fantastic achievement.
We want to thank every volunteer for everything they do to help Feed My City carry out its essential work. Our service would not be possible without the volunteers’ kindness, generosity and time. So volunteers, thank you so much.
We also hope this award can encourage more people to come forward to volunteer so that we can support more of those in need.
## **Our achievements include:**
Feed My City volunteer event to thank our amazing volunteers, ask them for their input, and promote community and interaction amongst our volunteer base. This allows us to support our service users even better.
Some of the Feed My City team with Lord Lieutenant Diane Hawkins receiving the King’s Award for Voluntary Service. The award was made for outstanding contribution by our volunteers to support those in most need.
The demand for emergency dry food parcels has increased and we have expanded the number of volunteer drivers continuing to store dry food bags in the boots of their cars to enable them to deliver to people in need in their local area. Our partnership with organisations such as Citizens Advice Bureaux are very productive and emergency food parcels can quickly be provided to those in most need.
Our minibus helps many different
communities across Greater Manchester with access to free transport. This has enabled hundreds of older, younger and diverse groups of people to better access many activities, reducing isolation, loneliness and improving community cohesion.
The demand for emergency dry food parcels has increased and we have expanded the number of volunteer drivers continuing to store dry food bags in the boots of their cars to enable them to deliver to people in need in their local area. We partner with Citizens Advice Bureaux, NHS and foodbanks to support those in need.
One of our community cohesion events took place in October 2023 in Old Trafford and was attended wery well with excellent contributions from a very diverse group of over 40 people. The Director of Operations from #WeStandTogether commented, “This was most diverse group at any workshop event I have attended, with people from so many different backgrounds.”
**Feedback from our service users (>200 survey respondents):**
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Rating of feelings about situation before and
after support from Feed My City
50.00
45.00
40.00
35.00
30.00
25.00 Before
20.00
After
15.00
10.00
5.00
0.00
0 2 4 6 8 10
Rating from Hopeless to Hopeful
Before After
Average Rating 4.23 7.95
Percentage +ve 37.50% 87.50%
percentage
**----- End of picture text -----**
**Scale 0 (hopeless) to 10 (hopeful)**
## **What the users of service said about us:**
The differences we are making, as stated by our service users in evaluations, evidence impact across many of our key indicators.
- 86% of service users said that the support prevented them facing hunger.
- 83% of service users said that the support helped them feel cared for.
- 79% of service users said that the support helped them to maintain their health.
- 70% of service users said that the support decreased their anxiety regarding money.
- Average rating of feelings about people’s situation on 0–10 scale rose from 3.9 before support from Feed My City to 7.8 after, a huge rise of 3.9.
- Just under 33% of people were positive about their situation before support, rising to 86% after. This evidences a major impact in improving people’s lives as a result of the work carried out with your funding.
These quantitative differences we have made for service users is further reflected in the qualitative feedback we have received via Survey Monkey:
_“Amazing amazing people. So friendly and so kind.”_
_“I am so happy that you provide food parcel same day many many thanks”_
_“Your services are brilliant”_
_“I was so grateful for the help and support from feed my city I don't know what I would of done without their help and support”_
_“I was in financial hardship and Feed my city have helped me massively with food parcels”_
_“Really helped me when I needed then many thanks x”_
_“They turned for me the same day I spoke with a small bag as an urgent option and I am so grateful that I cried I am so thankful to you all Thank you x I’d love hot meals too next time”_
_“I am truly grateful for the help provided by feed my city, the staff are very nice and the service they provide is a life saver, they are a wonderful organisation”_
_“Very good service really helpful and very quick response. Thank you so much for your help. God bless you.”_
_“I wasn't judged and received an abundance of hot meals and a dry bag.”_
_“Amazing hot meals fresh & delicious Fast delivery Great staff members”_
_“Alex and Colin was so kind and helpful. Thank you so much”_
_“I got a very incredible reception from the staffs and they were courteous. It is a nice and warmly organization. Thank you very much.”_
_“Amazing staff and food parcel was delivered within an hour”_
_“You were amazing!! I felt a bit ashamed of my circumstances but the girl who gave me my parcel was absolutely sweet and welcoming. If you ever need volunteers, I’d love to give back”_
_“You reacted very quick to me and your an excellent company”_
_“I am amazed that how fast your support was. I wasn't expecting the parcel tonight”_
_“They are wonderful I couldn't of survived without them”_
_“Thank goodness for your help nice”_
## **Our plans for the future**
We are looking to continue to focus on our current objectives whilst enabling the charity to grow and expand the services we deliver. Our growth has continued with increased funding, number of volunteers, services we provide, and area we cover.
Our priority continues to be our flagship project of Feed My City, ensuring that we meet the demands for emergency dry food parcels and hot meals. We aim to respond to all emergency requests on the same day and plan to take this service to more areas of Greater Manchester.
Following the accident with the mobile food van, we aim to acquire a new van and introduce a new model for hot meal provisions for the most deprived areas of Greater Manchester.
We aim to increase the focus on fundraising for the recruitment of full and part-time staff to manage the food van operations as well as food preparation, deliveries and other work in line with our charity objectives.
The charity will continue to support our volunteers through training and development, with a special focus on the needs of new volunteers.
We will continue to seek feedback from our service users via surveys, formal and informal consultations, and verbal feedback, and to assess ongoing needs of both the local Sikh community, wider service user base, and our volunteers.
We will also consult with our partners to further expand our network of partnerships, as well as exploring how we can extend and improve the service to both our service users and our partners.
The charity will also be commencing more activities around education, employment and religious harmony.
We will be progressing our plans for youth leadership training, enabling young people to become peer leaders who can, with support, deliver programmes themselves.
We plan to further develop our partnership with the United Sikh Mothers, by supporting, organising and funding their activities aiming to combat loneliness and enhance education.
Active engagement with the Sikh Community will be undertaken, especially focusing around gender, disability, young and older people’s needs, with the aim of addressing issues earlier and providing an outlet for people to get peer support, enjoy life more and, overall, have improved mood, confidence and self-esteem.
Whilst we have made many improvements to our website, more work is required to update our website and social media presence and this will be a priority to both improve our service delivery and outward communications.
## **Public Benefit**
The trustees confirm that they have complied with the guidance contained in the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit and the supplementary public benefit guidance for charities whose aims include food poverty, religious harmony and wellbeing of the Sikh Community when reviewing the charity's aims and objectives and in planning future activities.
## **Risk assessment**
The trustees regularly identify and review major risks facing the charity and have, where necessary, put measures in place to mitigate them.
## **Financial Review**
The charity received £132,701 in the year to March 2024. (£106,232 in 2023)
Grants £103,860 (£53,220 in 2023) Donations £24,273 (£53,012 in 2023) Sikh Education £4,568 (£1,280 in 2023)
Our expenditure in the year was: Restricted £75,470.00, Unrestricted £36,856 giving an annual expenditure of £112,326 (£74,723 in 2023) resulting in cash funds as of 31st March 2024:
Restricted £33,391 (£27,333 in 2023) Unrestricted £48,788 (£33,851 in 2023)
## **Grants**
During the year Feed My City received grants from the following organisations:
|The National Lottery Community Fund|£59,535|
|---|---|
|Willow Tree Trust|£25,000|
|Manchester City Council|£6,200|
|The Peel Trust|£5,000|
|Salford CVS|£5,000|
|Groundwork (UK)|£2,125|
|We Stand Together Affiliate Award|£1,000|
To these organisations we are truly honoured.
## **Statement of Financial Activities** Manchester Sikh Foundation For the year ended 31 March 2024
|
**Account**|
**Restricted**
**Funds**|**Unrestricted**
**Funds**|**Year Ended**
**31.03.24**|**Year Ended**
**31.03.23**|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|**Incoming Resources**|||||
|
Donations|9,000.00
£|15,273.00
£|24,273.00
£|53,012.00
£|
|Grants|67,660.00
£|36,200.00
£|103,860.00
£|53,220.00
£|
|Sikh Education|4,568.00
£|-
£|4,568.00
£|1,280.00
£|
|**Total Incoming Resources**|**81,228.00**
**£**|**51,473.00**
**£**|**132,701.00**
**£**|**107,512.00**
**£**|
||||||
|**Charitable Activities**|||||
|Counselling||||3,119.00
£|
|Food Purchase|11,000.00
£|30,380.00
£|41,380.00
£|31,076.00
£|
|Motor Vehicle Expenses|1,325.00
£|-
£|1,325.00
£|3,396.00
£|
|Staffing Costs|41,432.00
£|1,820.00
£|43,252.00
£|8,134.00
£|
|Subcontracted Staffing|4,650.00
£|-
£|4,650.00
£|7,169.00
£|
|Volunteer Expenses|470.00
£|-
£|470.00
£|1,943.00
£|
|Teaching|2,730.00
£|||875.00
£|
|Room Hire|3,090.00
£|-
£|3,090.00
£|3,850.00
£|
|Activity Expenses|750.00
£|1,500.00
£|2,250.00
£|25.00
£|
|**Total Charitable Activities**|**65,447.00**
**£**|**33,700.00**
**£**|**99,147.00**
**£**|**59,587.00**
**£**|
||||||
|**Gross Resources**|**15,781.00**
**£**|**17,773.00**
**£**|**33,554.00**
**£**|**47,925.00**
**£**|
||||||
|**Support Costs**|||||
|Advertising& Marketing|934.00
£|-
£|934.00
£|2,087.00
£|
|Legal Expenses||||414.00
£|
|Audit & Accountancy fees|-
£|300.00
£|300.00
£|300.00
£|
|Printing& Stationery||||132.00
£|
|Bank Fees|78.00
£|-
£|78.00
£|26.00
£|
|Depreciation Expense|3,530.00
£|2,856.00
£|6,386.00
£|6,176.00
£|
|Insurance|2,294.00
£|-
£|2,294.00
£|2,035.00
£|
|Light, Power, Heating|2,175.00
£|-
£|2,175.00
£|2,630.00
£|
|Rates|202.00
£|-
£|202.00
£||
|Repairs & Maintenance|810.00
£|-
£|810.00
£||
|Charitable Donations||||1,335.00
£|
|**Total Support Costs**|**10,023.00**
**£**|**3,156.00**
**£**|**13,179.00**
**£**|**15,135.00**
**£**|
||||||
|**Net Resources**|**5,758.00**
**£**|**14,617.00**
**£**|**20,375.00**
**£**|**32,790.00**
**£**|
||||||
|**Total Funds Brought Forward**|**27,633.00**
**£**|**33,851.00**
**£**|**61,484.00**
**£**|**28,694.00**
**£**|
||||||
|**Total Funds Carried Forward**|**33,391.00**
**£**|**48,468.00**
**£**|**81,859.00**
**£**|**61,484.00**
**£**|
_*** Some cost have been apportiond o a percentage basis using a "common sense" approach. *Additional work has been undertaken throughout the year to categorise the staffing costs, subcontracted staffing, this has been undertaken to give the Trustees more visbitily and clarity.**_
Balance Sheet
Manchester Sikh Foundabon
As at 31 March 2024
Account
Restriued Unrestrlctsd
Funds
Funds
31 Mai 2024 31 Mar 2023
Flxed Assets
Tanglble Assets
otor Vehides
8.716.(Kl £
8.716.00 £ 11.621.00
1.250.00 £ 2.240.00 £ 3.490.00 £ 4.655_00
9.270.00
9.270.00
19?]6. £
2.240.IJO £ I1.476. £ 16.276.1)0
19?36. £
2.240.IJO £ 11A76. É 16.276.
Office Equipment
Plant and Machinety
Totsl Tangible Assets
TrAal Fixed Assets
Current Assets
Cash 81 bank in hand
FMC mwn
20.562.tKI £ 38.84300 £ 59.40500 £ 43.74900
1.309 00 £
1.309 00 £
1.259 00
21,871.(KI £ 38.843.IYI £ 60,714.IKI £ 45,IK18.Iy)
500 tKI £
500.00 £
500 00
I2,371.(1 £ 38,843.(YJ £ GI,214. £ 45,508.IY)
Sikh sdIes
Total Cash ai bank tnd in hand
Other DeDtors
Total Cuttent Assets
Creditots.. amounts falling due within one year
Accruals
300.00 £
300.00 £
300_00
Pensions- Payable
531.tKI
531.00
Total Creditors: amounts falling de *rythin one year £
531.(Kl £
3.00 £
831. £
Nei Current Assets ILiabillilesl
21,840.(KI £ 38,543.00 £ 60,383.IKI £ 45,208.1
Totsl A$58ts1855 Curiènt Liabililiès
£ 41,076.(KI £ 40.183.( £ 81,859.(Kl £ 61,484.lY)
Net Assets
I1.076. £ 40.783.00 £ 81.859. £ 61,484.OD
Capital and Reserves
Currentyear Eamings
Retained Eamings
Total Capital and RerveS
S.758. £ 14.617.00 £ 20.375.00 £ 32.790_00
27.633.00 £ 33.851.00 £ 61.4PA.00 £ 28.69400
33.391.IXI £ 48.468.00 £ 91.859. £ 61,484.1)0
'Accruats are for AccoununcyFees
We would like to specifically thank the following partners:
Willow Tree Trust, National Lottery Community Fund, AD Merchandise, People’s Postcode Lottery, Manchester Museum, Manchester City Council, Salford CVS, Tesco, #WeStandTogether, Biffa, VSPG Housing, Bruntwood, Manchester BME Network and many other individuals and partners organisations.
We have received over £300,000 in donations in kind. The majority of this represents over 25,000 volunteer hours in the year, which, when costed at £10 an hour, works out as over £250,000. Many other donations of food or services were highly significant, including from well-wishers, local businesses and volunteers. The Board of Trustees of the Manchester Sikh Foundation are very grateful for these valuable contributions which have had an immense impact on our capacity and quality of our operations.
Sukhbir Singh On behalf of the Trustee Board
Resham Singh
## 16.08.2024
## **MANCHESTER SIKH FOUNDATION**
## **Independent Examiners**
## **Report to the trustees of Manchester Sikh Foundation - Charity number: 1191992**
We report to the trustees our examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 31 March 2024.
## **Responsibilities and basis of the report**
As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).
We report in respect of our examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out our examination, we have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
## **Independent examiner's statement**
We have completed our examination. We confirm that no material matters have come to our attention in connection with the examination (other than that disclosed below *) which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:
- the accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act; or
- the accounts did not accord with the accounting records; or
- the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 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.
We 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.
Date: 29 July 2024
Mrs Rupinder Howard For an on behalf of HHK Accountancy Services Ltd Suite 212, Oakland House 21 Hope Carr Road Leigh WN7 3QW
1