# **AMBLE FOOD BANK ANNUAL REPORT for the ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING NOVEMBER 2022** ## **Introduction** This is our first annual report. Amble Food Bank (AFB) became a registered charity in October 2021 (Registered Charity Number 1196268). It is also now registered with HMRC and donors are able to Gift Aid their donations. It has its base at Trinity Methodist Church on Percy Street, Amble. AFB is run by a group of approximately 15 volunteers, five of whom are trustees. We are a voluntary organisation serving the Amble and its surrounding communities. Three of the trustees have specific roles: Terry Long - Chair Lynne Morelli - Secretary Colin Scammell - Treasurer All volunteers coming into contact with clients have gone through Disclosure Barring Service (DBS) checks, and volunteers also regularly refresh their safeguarding awareness training, along with any other relevant training (see ‘Safeguarding’ section). In addition there are two named Safeguarding Designated Leads who have also undertaken specific Designated Person for Safeguarding Adults and Children training. We make it our duty to care about the welfare of our clients, and there have been odd occasions when we have had concerns about individual clients that we see on a regular basis and have referred them to the One Call team to be assessed by them. Our clients live in the Amble, Warkworth, Hadston and Broomhill areas and receive a food parcel on a fortnightly basis. Deliveries go out every Tuesday and Thursday morning, 51 weeks a year. The total number of clients fluctuates, depending on clients’ individual circumstances, but it can vary between 50 and 100 (see ‘Data’ section). AFB has robust referral and review policies. Clients can be referred through a number of channels. These may include Northumberland Communities Together, a GP, social worker, health visitor or school. Clients sometimes self-refer. No individual or family is refused a food parcel, but after receipt of their first one, clients are requested to acquire an official referral – usually via Northumberland Communities Together, unless they have a key worker. All clients are reviewed on a 3 monthly basis and require a fresh assessment and referral in order to continue receiving a food parcel. Records of all clients and referrals are kept in accordance with GDPR. Food parcels are designed to supplement an individual’s, couple’s or a family’s general food shopping. They contain staple ambient goods such as pasta, rice, cereals, pasta sauce, and a variety of tinned items, such as soup, meat, fish, vegetables etc. We always find out if new clients have any specific dietary requirements or allergies. Occasionally we will receive a referral informing us that they have scarcely any food in. In this instance they would receive an enhanced parcel containing fresh goods. All food is 1 stored at our base. We were inspected by Environmental Health this year and received a five star Food Hygiene rating and were deemed to be “a well run food bank.” We rely on the local communities for donations of food to AFB. Members of the public can donate food items at Amble Co-op or they can purchase a pick-up bag from Amble Morrison’s. AFB works very closely with both supermarkets, and volunteers collect this food several times a week. There are also collection tins at the Co-op, the Farm Bakery and the Boatshed Gallery pod. Local schools and churches regularly collect food items that they donate to AFB. There are also some small local businesses who regularly donate food to AFB. In addition we receive some one off monetary donations to our bank account and some individuals have set up standing orders. We have recently re-opened AFB’s ‘Just Giving’ page as we now have to top up our food stocks with regular large supermarket shops. This clearly has a big impact upon our finances (see ‘Finances’ section). In addition to the above AFB has developed strong community links and works closely with a number of professionals who know our communities well. We were successful in 2021 with an application to the Co-op Local Community Fund and have so far received over £400 that was raised through this. With this money AFB purchased lunch items (bread, cheese, meat, drinks, fruit etc) to help our families feed their children over various school holidays. We are set to receive further money from this fund this autumn (see Financial Report). We also work closely with the local health centre (Coquet Medical Group) and local schools and churches. We also support families who have pets in their household. In October 2022 alone we gave pet food to 17 clients (15 dogs and 2 cats). We work closely with Alexa’s Canine Trust (ACT) who have regularly donated pet food to us. Along with ACT we firmly believe that it is in the pets’ best interests to remain with their owner(s). Providing pet food for them makes this all the more likely. We have a strong social media presence and regularly post useful information for the local communities. as well as thank various individuals and organisations for their support and donations. We have built up AFB’s social media audience over the last 2 years – again this page is run solely by volunteers. We do receive a number of self-referrals and enquiries via our Amble Food Bank Facebook page. ## **Lynne Morelli (Secretary and Trustee)** ## **Trustees and Roles** ## **Trustees** 2 Terry Long – 3 years Lynne Morelli – 3 years Colin Scammell – 2 years Ben Moore – 1 year Bill Cruickshank – 1 year ## **Roles** Chair – Terry Long Secretary – Lynne Morelli Treasurer – Colin Scammell Amble Food Bank’s Constitution states that there should be a maximum of five trustees. It was agreed when the charity was set up that the following terms would be adhered to. Thereafter trustee roles come under review and it is possible for other trustee nominations to take place. Any trustee positions coming to the end of their term will need to be reviewed and discussed at the Annual General Meeting. ## **Data Analysis** During the period between 1[st] November 2021 and 31[st ] October 2022 the following numbers of food parcels were delivered by Amble Food Bank. A single parcel is delivered to an individual living alone and a family food parcel constitutes either a couple living together or a single person or couple with children in the household. Households with a large number of children (5 plus) will receive extra items on top of a standard family bag. Numbers do fluctuate after reviews. Clients are requested to get a fresh referral approximately every 3 months and some do not return to us following this. It may be because their circumstances have changed and they no longer require a food parcel, or it may be that their lives have simply become so chaotic that they do not get round to requesting a fresh referral to us. |**Month**|**Family Parcel**|**Single Parcel**| |---|---|---| |November 2021|58|52| |December 2021|82|48| |January2022|96|59| |February2022|88|56| |March 2022|83|56| |April 2022|58|52| |May2022|66|63| |June2022|85|70| |July2022|72|67| |August 2022|85|79| |September 2022|78|63| |October 2022|67|43| |**Total**|**916**|**707**| 3 ## **Total number of parcels delivered November 2021 to October 2022 = 1623** ## **The Future** We envisage that the numbers of clients on our caseload will continue to rise due to the current cost of living crisis (with energy and food costs rising dramatically). More and more clients are self-referring as well as being referred by agencies such as Health Visitors, Children’s Services workers and Social Prescribers. Volunteers and trustees will continue to network with agencies who know their clients’ needs well. This means that we try to capture as many individuals as possible who are struggling financially and are in need of support via a food parcel. We have recently recruited 4 more volunteers to Amble Food Bank and have a reserve list of people who are keen to offer their services. We do not currently envisage having too few volunteers to support the number of clients on our caseload, even if this continues to rise. ## **Eric Davidson (Team member with responsibility for caseload management) Lynne Morelli (Secretary and Trustee)** ## **Financial Report** Bank balance as at 1/1/22 **£19704.67** Bank Balance as at 17/10/22 **£17,677.88** Total Spend 1/1/22 - 17/10/22 **£15,034.14** Food spend 1/1/22 - 17/10/22 **£11,045.47** **Rent/Energy** – we have paid £1500 (this includes energy costs) to Trinity Methodist Church (last year we paid £1200 rent & £50 energy costs). Amble Food Bank’s Liabilities Insurance has been renewed and is up to date. There was no increase in the premium. **Funding** - We are awaiting £10,000 funding from Northumberland County Council via the DWP’s roll-out of the Household Support Fund. This funding is aimed at supporting households most in need of support with food, energy and water bills. As a food bank providing food, we met this criteria. Agreement will be sought at the AGM to see if we can invest this sum in a fixed rate bond. 4 We were successful in an application for a charitable grant to cover the cost of school holidays enhanced lunch parcels. This was via the Co-op’s Local Community Fund. We delivered these enhanced parcels to families with nursery and/or school aged children during the Easter, Spring Bank, summer and October half term holidays. We received a payment of £430.28 in April and, with the final amount to be received in November, the total raised comes to £2902.49. As the year has progressed, we have been spending much more on food that we’ve been short of. This is for a number of reasons: we have received fewer food items from our main local supermarket following the pandemic; the cost of living crisis has meant that we now have a greater number of clients on our caseload and food donations to us have decreased slightly because of the cost of living crisis. We also currently have a total of £867 in our Just Giving account that we have yet to draw on. A number of fundraising events have also raised money for AFB. One music event raised £95 and a local resident raised £711.40 participating in the Great North Run in September 2022. ## **The Future** As we envisage the number of clients on our caseload to rise because of the cost of living crisis, this will undoubtedly impact on our finances. Fortunately with monetary donations continuing to come in (some on a regular monthly basis) and with the £10,000 grant funding still to come from NCC, we are confident that we will have more than sufficient funds to cover all outgoing costs in the short term. Thanks to the generosity of our local communities, we are relatively well off financially compared to many other food banks who are struggling. ## **Colin Scammell (Treasurer and Trustee) Lynne Morelli (Secretary and Trustee)** ## **Safeguarding Report** Amble Food Bank has two Safeguarding Designated Leads, Lynne Morelli and Mary Davidson, to whom any safeguarding concerns should be addressed. In the case of need for immediate action, either Lynne or Mary should be informed of any referral made within 24 hours. In the past year, team members who needed to refresh or undertake Safeguarding Training have done so. New members who have recently joined the Food Bank team will be enrolled onto training as soon as 5 practicable. Both Safeguarding Designated Leads have attended the required ‘Designated Person for Safeguarding’ training during 2022. All team members who deliver Food Bank parcels are DBS checked. We are in the process of ensuring recent team members are also DBS checked. In her role as Secretary, Lynne maintains a record of each person’s date of completed Safeguarding Training and dates of DBS checks. All records are kept in accordance with GDPR. In the past year three referrals have been made to One Call. These included two referrals for the same person to Adult Social Care and one referral to Children’s Social Care. Copies of any referrals are kept in a locked box in our locked Filing Cabinet. Lynne and Mary hold the keys to this secure box. Currently, Amble Food Bank comes under the Safeguarding policy for Trinity Methodist Church. It remains our intention to have our own Safeguarding Policy, in line with being a registered charity. Due to time pressures for both Lynne and I this year, it has not been possible, but we aim to complete this by the end of 2022. Information regarding details of Safeguarding Key Contacts is clearly displayed on the Food Bank notice board and all team members are aware of this. Amble Food Bank is committed to Safeguarding, and to endorsing the ethos that Safeguarding is everyone’s business. ## **Mary Davidson (Safeguarding Designated Lead) Lynne Morelli (Safeguarding Designated Lead)** 6 ## **AGM Financial Report 1/11/22** Bank balance as 1/1/22 £19704.67 Bank Balance as at 17/10/22 £17,677.88 Total Spend 1/1/22-17/10/22 £15,034.14 Food spend 1/1/22-17/10/22 £11,045.47 Liabilities Insurance has been renewed – no increase in premium. Awaiting £10000 funding from Nothumberland Communities Together – agreement needed to invest this in a fixed rate bond. Rent/Energy – paid £1500 (to include energy costs) to the Methodist Church ( last year it was £1200 rent & £50 energy). Applied for a £2000 charitable grant to cover the cost of school holidays enhanced lunch parcels