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2023-12-31-accounts

Annual Report of the Trustees of Baby Box Isle of Wight

1[st] January 2023 to 31[st] December 2023

The Trustees present their 2023 Annual Report and independently reviewed accounts for the year ending 31[st] December 2023 and confirm they comply with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011. Baby Box Isle of Wight registered formally as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (registration number 1193830) on 16[th] March 2021. This report covers the work of the Charity for the period 1[st] January 2023 to 31[st] December 2023.

OUR AIMS:

The Objects of the Charity are

The Constitution of Baby Box Isle of Wight gives Trustees the power to make decisions on behalf of the Charity and to determine the ethos, strategy and policies for achieving the objectives set. Baby Box Isle of Wight is managed by the Trustees who meet four times per year. Between Trustee meetings, a joint steering committee meets regularly with the voluntary coordinators of Baby Box and Ventnor Community Foodbank. Trustees can, and do, attend steering committee meetings to keep up to date with frontline issues.

OUR ETHOS

Baby Box Isle of Wight is committed to working with everyone with dignity and respect. All three projects share the same charitable objectives and each project shares the same ethos of ‘Cascading Kindness’.

Baby Box Isle of Wight takes inclusion seriously and strives to assist the Isle of Wight community in a way that both recognises and works to remove barriers that may, albeit unintentionally, lead to sections of the community being unaware or less aware of the support we offer because they might be considered ‘easily overlooked’.

Sustainability - Baby Box Isle of Wight takes a positive approach to environmental concerns and works with other organisations such as local supermarkets, Fareshare, the Salvation Army and the Real Junk Food Project to reduce food insecurity by avoiding food waste and to help avoid landfill of waste materials such as clothing and baby equipment. We are always interested in, and open to ways of improving our working practices that are environmentally friendly and sustainable and are grateful to Community Action for their support and guidance.

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CHARITABLE ACTIVITY DURING 2023

Baby Box Isle of Wight Trustees are pleased to report the following activities have been undertaken for the public benefit. Support is available to the those in need wherever they live on the Isle of Wight. Trustees are proud of the good reputation built up since Baby Box Isle of Wight opened at the end of 2018 and is mindful of the trust built up over the years. Our goal is to guard our good reputation by always respecting the dignity and confidentiality of our customers.

How much help was provided by our Charity in 2023?

In 2023 Ventnor Community Pantry supported 4063 members’ visits which meant practical food support for 14052 individuals (Adults = 7801, Children = 6251).

In 2023 Ventnor Community Foodbank supported a total of 1409 individuals which meant crisis or emergency food support for 999 adults and 410 children .

In 2023 Baby Box Isle of Wight (our grassroots support project that began late in 2018 when our founder decided to tackle the need to ensure that babies and toddlers were provided with tailored support that included the right size packets of nappies, weaning food, and other essentials and evolved into a sustainable ‘swap shop type of session where preloved baby clothes, bedding and equipment was checked before being distributed free of charge) continued to try to meet the needs of babies, children, teenagers, expectant parents and school pupils.

In 2023 Baby Box supported 1619 visits (Adults = 2920, Children = 3716)

Who helps run Baby Box Isle of Wight?

The community does. We are proud that many of our grassroots volunteers have just acquired, or learned long ago, the skills needed to become ‘experts by experience’ in making a little money stretch a very long way. We are proud to count them amongst our team that helps ‘Cascade Kindness’.

The Trustees extend their gratitude to everyone who supports our charity whether their contribution is in time, money or donations of much needed essential items.

2023 Update on Baby Box Isle of Wight

Baby Box Isle of Wight loves to ‘Cascade Kindness’ and operates upon the basis of ‘what we have, we share’ and we are helped to continue to do this by many warmhearted local businesses, many of whom fundraised throughout 2023, particularly the bar manager of a local establishment who organised many fundraising quizzes for local community causes. We are grateful to both of the Community Champions of Morrisons in Lake and Newport stores, and ASDA ‘s Community Champion who all responded warmly to requests for help. We have received wonderful support from several Individual managers of local Coop supermarkets from across the Isle of

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Wight Ventnor’s local health food store continued to act as a donation point and played a big part in signposting those in need to the Foodbank and to Baby Box.

During 2023, Baby Box signposted people to formal advice agencies such as the Footprint Trust and Citizens Advice for expert advice and attended the monthly community sessions in St Catherine’s church to meet the public. Baby Box continued to maintain contact with Health Visiting teams, and other community organisations like Barnados and the local refuge. We could not have done it without the support of countless small acts of kindness from unknown individuals, or bigger organisations such as Ventnor Town Council, the Isle of Wight Council and so many small businesses that made it clear to us that ‘we only needed to ask’ and they would do what they could to help keep us help others.

2023 Update on Ventnor Community Pantry at Baby Box

Demand upon Ventnor Community Pantry at Baby Box since we opened at the end of May 2022 has surpassed expectations. Originally we anticipated that the Pantry would be supporting around 50 households per week - and that figure proved to be a dramatic underestimation that led to the much needed increase in our coordinator’s hours and, late in 2023 when funding was available, an additional temporary administration post to help with the increased administrative demands for returns by multiple funders. We then needed additional volunteers to assist with the heavy workload and it was helpful when our admin worker assisted in the preparation of an induction display version of our Volunteers Handbook that is to hand, readily available to the whole team on every shift.

2023 Update on Ventnor Community Foodbank – change of premises and move to Baby Box

Ventnor Community Foodbank’s 2023 move into the Baby Box premises was seen by Trustees to be a welcome development for many reasons, as it lends itself to the possibility of sharing share staff and volunteers and our Victoria Street premises are more accessible for everyone. It is an additional bonus for those members of the public in need of emergency or crisis food supplies that the relocation of the Ventnor Community Foodbank means it is not readily overlooked by members of the public shopping in the Ventnor. Trustees are happy to listen to suggestions from volunteers and the decision to relocate was first raised by the foodbank volunteers, put forward to a steering group meeting of the Ventnor Community Foodbank and then agreed by Trustees.

Trustees are always mindful of the debt owed to all of our volunteers who make what we do possible and Trustees fully recognised the importance of carefully integrated steps needed to ensure both food based projects retained their high quality reputation for delivering both crisis food through the foodbank, and the membership scheme whereby Pantry users self-select items on a maximum of a once a week

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basis to help stretch a tight household food budget. Our team strives to provide fresh produce, particularly fruit and vegetables, whenever possible and do our best to avoid food waste.

AVOIDING FOOD WASTE

Baby Box Isle of Wight is committed to sustainability as much as we possibly can. Now that the foodbank shares premises with Ventnor Community Pantry there is a very simple approach to making short date fresh fruit and vegetables available free of charge to those attending either project. It is a bonus to be able to extend the offer to those families visiting Baby Box too. Our team has been able to encourage individuals and households in crisis to reduce the potential risk of a future food crisis by inviting them to sign up as a Pantry member. Pantry members pay £5 once a week to obtain up to £20 worth of frozen food, refrigerated food, non-perishable food products as well as short date fresh food products that might otherwise have gone to landfill.

We are also fortunate to be part of a network that addresses the question of avoiding food waste. This involves FARESHARE, our local COOP store and Morrison’s Community Champions in both Newport and Lake stores who have kept us supplied with regular donations. We are grateful too to the Living Well Team which helped by sourcing seasonal hampers for households who would struggle without a ‘teaspoon of practical help’. We fully appreciate that supermarkets are moving away from their ‘post pandemic’ model of donating essential supplies, and we are truly appreciative of the support of the customers who are the main donors of provisions shared by supermarkets.

The kindness of local schools and churches in sharing their harvest festival collections with our charity is truly appreciated too.

HARD TIMES NEED TO BE PREPARED FOR

In our last annual report we commented that, even post pandemic, the forecast for likely level of demand was that it would increase.

Ventnor has been identified in the latest JSNA (published in March 2022) as an area of higher deprivation and of higher food insecurity in both the Central Ventnor and Upper Ventnor areas. Ventnor is also identified as an area where there is an increased risk of higher social isolation. This is a longstanding situation that predates the further difficulties encountered due to the recent pandemic. The Government’s Index of Multiple Deprivation published in 2010 and Local Strategic Output Areas of Central and Upper Ventnor, Central Ventnor is in the 10% most deprived area nationally whilst Upper Ventnor falls in the 20% most deprived area. Later publications of the Government’s index of multiple deprivation (published 2015 and 2019) show that these areas have become more deprived.

Whilst all three organisations support people in need from across the whole of the Isle of Wight, we are based in Ventnor, and it follows that a lot of our work will address those experiencing food poverty in Ventnor and the surrounding areas. Throughout 2023 there has been community pantries (some pop up) opening in

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other areas across the Isle of Wight and inevitably, these will impact beneficially the communities where they have been established.

On a national scale, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has provided bleak forecasts that we simply cannot disagree with based upon the feedback we get from our grassroots volunteers, other community projects and those who approach us for support. Things were not made any easier when the local community faced a landslip that closed off main access routes to Ventnor town in the closing weeks of 2023. meeting increasing costs in terms of food, utilities and housing was harder and at times close to impossible, even for many local people lucky enough to still be in full time paid work. Increased day to day household costs and the option of retaining a household’s dignity by paying to shop at our community pantry enticed many more working local people to sign up to the community pantry. The queues outside Baby Box and the Community Pantry continued to grow and did not, as we thought they might, diminish. People who needed a practical helping hand rather than a handout continued to attend, form friendships and swapped recipes for what products were on offer. It was a very much more positive experience, and families brought their older family members to sign up and their little ones to help choose items from the shelves, fridges and freezers.

We also, anecdotally, became aware of a multi-generational aspect emerging in terms of who was struggling to make ends meet. It seemed as if the pre-pandemic ‘unofficial support networks’ whereby friends and families might help someone to get through to pay day with a helping hand had simply buckled under the additional pressures to keep up with rising costs themselves.

Sadly, the increased demand for our services proved we were right. The winter of 2022 through to the spring of 2023 proved to be very challenging for so many people and households, and the future looks equally difficult. As hard as the work our team does proves to be, on balance we felt we needed to keep on doing what we can to help our community, Trustees listened to those members of the community who used our services as well as those who provided volunteer support and felt compelled to do what we could to offer support, so we worked with anyone and everyone who might help. We are forever grateful to the bigger organisations that came to our aid so that we could support our community. We truly appreciate the support from the Town Clerk, his staff and individual councillors from Ventnor Town Council, local Housing Associations like Southern Housing Group, and others, that came to our aid late in 2022, as well as the Connect4Communities team at the Isle of Wight Council and IWC councillors and staff who visited us. Numerous local businesses (big and small), faith groups, individual donors and our volunteers all did what they could to help lighten our load.. It definitely takes a team. A very real bonus is the pet food support from organisations like Friends of the Animals and the Cat Protection League that help keep families and their pets together.

Baby Box continues to cascade kindness by supplying donated essentials that new and pre-loved babies, toddlers, school age to teenager clothing, pre-loved equipment, nappies and baby food to families in need, and Ventnor Community

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Foodbank continues to help families and individuals from across the Isle of Wight in crisis. We remain proud that there is no voucher or referral system needed to access either Baby Box of Ventnor Community Foodbank as we are convinced that we need to make the initial visit to ask for help as barrier free as possible. There is always time to help signpost people to other agencies once a relationship of trust has begun to build up.

Following Trustees and Coordinators attending the Food Insecurity Conference held on the Island in November 2022, organised by the Isle of Wight Food Network and addressed by national speakers our charity has been represented at local multi agency meetings convened to address food insecurity.

Allies keeping Ventnor Community Pantry at Baby Box running.

Trustees are rightly very proud of what a small grassroots community organisation has been able to achieve, and we fully appreciate that we simply could not have done a fraction of what our small charity achieved during 2023 without a network of practical help and support from our local Ventnor Town Councillors and officers, Ventnor Businesses that hosted fundraising events, local Churches, the Isle of Wight Council, the local Lions and Rotary clubs and others ranging from Unison Local Government to the local runners, Ventnor Sloggers, that we’ll do our best to acknowledge where space allows. Then there are many very kind individuals who wish to remain anonymous but donate to us and we would truly be lost without them. Trustees are grateful to everyone who helps us help others across the whole of the Isle of Wight.

During 2023 our charity was supported by many individuals and many organisations. Thanks are due to: -

Ventnor Town Mayors, other Ventnor Town Councillors, the Town Clerks, the Community Development Officer and the whole team at Ventnor Town Council helped keep the community pantry up and running when times got tough.

Senior staff of the Isle of Wight Council and Isle of Wight Councillors who took the time to visit us and helped make our case to the staff and senior management of the Connect4Communities team.

The two local Morrisson stores’ Community Champions who literally envisaged and supported how we could make Ventnor Community Pantry at Baby Box a huge success for the public we support.

Southern Housing Group senior management who not only visited us in 2022, but then were there to help with advice when needed during 2023.

The High Sherrif who helped us provide a Baby Box project to supply fresh fruit and vegetables and sanitary products to those who needed them.

Fareshare in Southampton that delivered to us plentiful supplies to share with our Pantry members. The Fareshare delivery team is made up of heroes who find their

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way to Ventnor in all weathers, a particularly difficult challenge after the landslip at the end of 2023.

Access to the services continued to be maintained through collaborative working with Ventnor Town Council, Health Visitors, Children’s Services, Adult Services and others with direct contact being maintained with those in need of support as well as arrangements for collection from the venues by arrangements made by phone, email or social media.

RISK MANAGEMENT:

The Trustees recognise that systems can only provide reasonable but not absolute assurance that major risks have been adequately managed and are responsible for overseeing risks faced by the organisation. Internal financial controls are in place. Financial commitments are closely monitored and opportunities for further grants are actively explored to meet future needs. We take seriously the Risk Management process and Trustees are satisfied major risks have been identified and adequately mitigated. Detailed consideration is carried out in consultation with key postholders, and we have a Safeguarding lead officer who has undertaken detailed risk assessments, produced written policies and delivered training to volunteers carrying out the work of the charity.

FINANCIAL MATTERS

All Trustees give their time freely and no Trustees received remuneration or Trustee expenses for undertaking this role during the financial period covered by this Annual Report. The accompanying financial report shows income and expenditure for the year.

Whereas in previous years donations came mostly from private individuals, local organisations and in the case of the foodbank from Ventnor Town Council, during 2023 we benefited from a number of donations from organisations plus Connect4Communities government grants as set out in the financial report. These grants made us well placed to be able to purchase food and other essential items needed to continue our work to support the local community.

OTHER RELATIONSHIPS:

Whilst the attached, signed, examined and approved financial accounts lists amounts of cash provided by individuals and organisations, thanks are due to many others who offer wisdom and support:

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FUTURE PLANS

Baby Box Isle of Wight Trustees are committed to continuing the work of the charity and to recruiting new suitably skilled Trustees.

Trustee Recruitment and Training – the Charity requires Trustees with the breadth and depth of experience to carry out its duties effectively and efficiently. When recruiting new Trustees, we consider the important attribute is a passion for the work undertaken by our Charity as well as the business and professional experience to

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ensure that applicants for Trustees are considered on the basis of the essential skills and experience they offer as well as any skill gaps that may exist in the existing makeup of the board of Trustees. We recruited a new Trustee in June 2023, and continue to seek applicants with knowledge and skills drawn from a background in the following fields of expertise: legal, financial and accountancy, social inclusion, business and management experience.

Trustees will work to address the needs of those experiencing food poverty.

Whilst all three organisations support people in need from across the whole of the Isle of Wight, we are based in Ventnor, and it follows that a lot of our work will address those experiencing food poverty in Ventnor and the surrounding areas. Throughout 2022-23 there have been more community pantries opening in other areas across the Isle of Wight and inevitably, these will impact beneficially the communities where they have been established and may reduce demand locally.

Ventnor has been identified in the latest JSNA (published in March 2022) as an area of higher deprivation and of higher food insecurity in both the Central Ventnor and Upper Ventnor areas. Ventnor is also identified as an area where there is an increased risk of higher social isolation. This is a longstanding situation that predates the further difficulties encountered due to the recent pandemic. The Government’s Index of Multiple Deprivation published in 2010 and Local Strategic Output Areas of Central and Upper Ventnor, Central Ventnor is in the 10% most deprived area nationally whilst Upper Ventnor falls in the 20% most deprived area. Later publications of the Government’s index of multiple deprivation (published 2015 and 2019) show that these areas have become more deprived.

Trustees will work through all three of our organisations to continue to interact with our local and wider community and to build positive relationships with individuals, local businesses, faith communities, schools and local support networks.

Ventnor Community Pantry will continue to work with the Isle of Wight Council Care Leavers team to help care leavers thrive. We will link individuals in need of advice and support to Island – wide agencies including Citizen’s Advice, Barnado’s, Veteran’s Outreach, Footprint Trust, etc. For those in need of company, advice and warmth we refer to the Better Days Café, The Well-Being Café, The Play Café and the Our Place monthly sessions which bring together agencies in a warm space providing company, food and advice under the same roof.

Trustees: Joyce Milford Stephen Milford FCPFA Tony McCarthy Mark Chiverton (from June 2023)

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Ventnor Community Foodbank operating venue address to the end of May 2023:

Baptist Church, Pier Street, Ventnor PO38 1SX

Baby Box Isle of Wight operating venue address:

Victoria Street, Ventnor PO38 1ET

Ventnor Community Pantry at Baby Box operating venue address:

Victoria Street, Ventnor PO38 1ET

Baby Box Isle of Wight Office address:

Salisbury Gardens, Dudley Road, Ventnor, PO38 1 EJ

Bankers

NatWest Newport Isle of Wight 107 St James Square Newport Isle of Wight PO30 1XH

Independent Examiner

Warren Fresle ACMA (professional body CIMA)

Insurance Brokers:

Norris & Fisher Insurance Brokers Ltd Threefield House Threefield Lane Southampton SO14 3 LP

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Charity Name No (if any) BABY BOX ISLE OF WIGHT 1193830 Receipts and payments accounts CC16a For the period Period start date Period end date To from 1-Jan-23 31-Dec-23

Section A Receipts and payments

Section A Receipts and payments
A1 Receipts
BabyBox
11,167
Foodbank
16,862
Pantry
6,970
-
-
-
-
-
34,999
-
-
Sub total -
Total receipts 34,999
A3 Payments
BabyBox
13,806
Foodbank
10,337
Pantry
15,986
-
-
-
-
-
-
Sub total 40,129
-
-
Sub total -
Total payments 40,129
Net of receipts/(payments) - 5,130
A5 Transfers between funds
-
A6 Cash funds last year end
-
Cash funds this year end - 5,130
Unrestricted
funds
to the nearest £
Sub total(Gross income for AR)
A2 Asset and investment sales,
(see table).
A4 Asset and investment
purchases, (see table)
to the nearest £
14,167
8,667
62,527
-
-
-
-
-
85,361
-
-
-
85,361
19,391
12,799
57,095
-
-
-
-
-
-
89,285
-
-
-
89,285
- 3,924
-
-
- 3,924
Restricted
funds
to the nearest £
Endowment
funds
Total funds
to the nearest £
25,334
25,529
69,497
-
-
-
-
-
120,360
-
-
-
120,360
33,197
23,136
73,081
-
-
-
-
-
-
129,414
-
-
-
129,414
- 9,054
-
-
- 9,054
Last year
to the nearest £
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
25,334 -
25,529 -
69,497 -
- -
- -
- -
- -
- -
120,360 -
-
-
-
-
- -
- -
- 120,360 -
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
33,197 -
23,136 -
73,081 -
- -
- -
- -
- -
- -
- -
129,414 -
-
-
-
-
-
- -
- 129,414 -
- 3,924 -
-
-
-
- 9,054 -
- - -
- - -
- 3,924 - 9,054 -

Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period

Categories
B1 Cash funds
B2 Other monetary assets
B3 Investment assets
B5 Liabilities
B4 Assets retained for the
charity’s own use
Signed by one or two trustees on
behalf of all the trustees
Details
Baby Box
Foodbank
Pantry
Details
Details
Details
Details
Signature
Total cash funds
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))
to nearest £
to nearest £
2,642
2,483
20,451
641
4,876
20,202
27,969
23,326
Agreement Error
Agreement Error
to nearest £
to nearest £
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Cost (optional)
-
-
-
-
-
Cost (optional)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Print Name
Stephen Milford
Unrestricted
funds
Restricted
funds
Unrestricted
funds
Restricted
funds
Fund to which
asset belongs
Fund to which
asset belongs
Fund to which
liability relates
Amount due
(optional)
to nearest £
Endowment
funds
-
-
-
-
OK
to nearest £
Endowment
funds
-
-
-
-
-
-
Current value
(optional)
-
-
-
-
-
Current value
(optional)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
When due
(optional)
Date of
approval
Stephen Milford 17-Oct-24