Dorchester Food Bank The Dorford Centre Bridport Road, Dorchester DTI IRR DORCHESTER Zfoodbank Reg Ch No. 1200552 Trustees. Annual Report Dorchester FoodBank 1st Oct 2023 to 30th September 2024 Charlty Name: Dorchester Food8ank Charity Nurnber: 1200552 Prlndpal Office: Dorchester FoodBank, The Dorford Centre, Bridport Road, Dorchester. DTI IRR We were registered as a Charltable Incorporated Organlsatlon (CIO) on 3rd October 2022, Our objectlves are: The prevention or relief of poverty in Dorchester and surroundings by providing grants, items and services to individuals In need and/ or charltles or other or8anlsations working to prevent or relieve poverty. Governance. Our governlng body. the Board of Trustees, consists of five people, Rosemary Hardwicke (Chairl, John Burn (Secretary), Tracy Hughes Ifoodbank manager), Stuart Dawson ISafe8uardin8 Officer) and John Hilton (Treasurerl. These five individuals have served throughout the year and also constitute the total membership of the charity. Board meetln8S are held at least every two months, dependin8 on the need. We hold an annual meetlng of supporters and collaborators at which the annual report and accounts are presented. Accountlng: as a charity with an income of less than £250,000 we operate with a simple receipts and payments accounting system and we have our annual accounts examined by an independent examiner, appointed by the board. The Charlty has no capltal assets, no endowments or investments and is totally dependent on grants and, more importantly, donations lin both cash and kindl for its income. How charlty fulfllled Its charltable purposes for public beneflt The trustees have complied with the duty in sertion 4 of the Charities Act 2006 to have due regard to the public benefit guidance published by the Charity Commission in the followin8 ways. We currently open three mornings a week (Monday, Wednesday and Friday) from 10.30am to 12.30pm for clients to collect their parcel{sl.
Many of our cllents are in food poverty as a result of multiple issues, including low income and debt, poor mental and/or physical health, rent or housing problems, etc. We therefore "signpost" those clients to local organisations, such as Citizens Advice, Dorset Council, who are best suited to provide support and advice with the on the underlying issues. Brief summary of achievements during the year. Our priorlties for the year were: 11 Continue to administer the food collection and distribution service as efficiently and effectively as possible 21 Consolidate good 8overnance arrangements by: Developin8 an appropriate range of policies and procedures Reviewing all our policies and business plan regularly Implementing 311 necessary changes to remain compliant with the General Data Protection Re8ul3tions IGDPRI and other legal requirements. 31 Undertake inltiatlves desl8ned to increase awarenes5 of Dorchester FoodBank in the local community. 41 Revlew our volunteer arrangements, includlng the development of succession planning arran8ements. 51 Investigate other fundin8 Opportunities, particularly Gift Aid on small donations. Contlnue to admlnlster the food collectlon and dlstrlbutlon servlce as efflclently and effectively as possible, As a result of the ongoing cost of Ilvlng crisis, the local Council provided additional financial help to those that were struggling, which reduced the demand for support from the FoodBank. Over the year we distributed 1107 food parcels comprising of 177 family parcels; 298 small familyl couple parcels and 632 single person parcels. This constitutes an 11.5% reduction in total parcels distributed, from the 1251 distributed in 2022-23. The table below shows client usage for 2023-24, and forthe previous twelve months. In addition to providing support for those in food poverty, we have also worked with a number of partners (such as Citizens Advice, Dorchester Family Support and Foodshare) to help those experiencing financial difficulties.
Table l. Numbers of food arcels distributed 2022-2023 1251 1620 817 222 321 708 2023-2024 1107 1435 716 177 298 632 % decrease 11.5 11.4 12.4 20.3 Number of referrals Number of adults helped Number of children helped Number of families helped Number of couples helped Number of single people helped 10.7 We have estimated that the current value of our food parcels is £21.00 for single clients, £32.00 for couple/small families and £50.00 for a family. In addition to supplying clients with ambient food items (such as packet and tlnned goods) we 150 provide a range of toiletries Isuch as shower gel, toothpaste, deodorant, sanltary products, etc.1 and household cleaning items (such as laundry detergent, washing up liquid, kitchen cleaner, etc.). Over 82% of our client5 ask for toiletries and 80% ask for household cleaning items. It Is difficult to estimate the average value per client, as not everyone needs the same items. However. we estimate that an average value of tolletrles and cleaning products per food parcel would be In the region of £9.50. The estimated total value of each type of food parcel is shown below Price number distributed 632 298 177 cost Slngle Couple/Small Familv Famlly £21.00 £32.00 £50.00. Total cost 13,272 9,536 31,658 Assumin8 one household cleaningjtoiletries pack per food parcel the total tost of the additional items is £10,517. This suggests that the total value of all the parcels, including cleanin8 and toiletries is £42,175 for the year. Table 3 Ibelowl reports a spend of £18,965 this financial year, to complete the food parcels, indicating that physical donations of foodl household items have an estlmated value of £23,210, i.e. physical gifts constitute 55% of the parcel contents. In order to cope with occasional large donations of, say, dog food, we have purchased a lockable storage box so that these occasional events do not swamp the working storage area and make ba8 packing difficult. Consolldate good governance arrangements by: al We regularly review our policies and business plan and take appropriate action to help consolidate our governance arrangements. As part of this, we have developed new procedures covering how we will support those clients who become over-dependent on FoodBank.
Undertake initiatives designed to increase awareness of Oorchester FoodBank in the local community. We continue to promote our services through social media and Ioc31 newspapers, and this has helped increase awareness of the services we provlde. We have also commenced a revlew of our website and information leaflets, which should be completed shortly. In addition, we continue to work closely with our partners on initiatives designed to improve the services we offer to clients. This has included providing financial support, jointly with Dorchester Poverty Action, for the locally run CAP (Christians Against Poverty) money management course. Revlew our volunteer arrangements, Includlng development of succession plannlng arrangements We regularly review our volunteer arrangements and, as part of this, have successfully increased our capaclty by increasing resources. In addition, and as part of our development of succession planning arrangements. we drafted a job description and Person Spec for Board Members with a view to advertlsing for new board members. Investigate other funding opportunitlesi partlcularly expanding the uptake of Glft Ald This year, we successfully applied for a one-off grant from Dorset Council for £5000. We were also successful in increaslng the uptake of Gift Aid. Future alms and objertlves Our aims and objectives for 2024125 are.. Continue to work with partner organlsations to help address food povertv. Undertake initiatives designed to increase awareness of the services we provide. Review our governance arran8ements to ensure they remain relevant and fit for purpose. Continue to review our volunteer arrangements.
Financial information Table 3 Statement of Consolidated Assets. Income and Liabilities Expenditure October 2023 to September 2024 2023-2024 £ 37,755.49 2022-23 £ 31,959.74 Openin8 balance Income grants donations Gift Aid repayments Total Income 5,750.00 37.619.90 3,394.27 5,000.00 50,587.88 46,764.17 55,587.88 Less expendlture Food Xmas vouchers Boots vouchers other-Admin & Consumables 18,965.44 3,750.00 1,780.00 2,634.98 23,171.72 8735.00 1,800.00 2,085.41 27,130.42 35,792.13 Other foodbank & CA support Total expendlture 335.00 27,465.42 14,000.00 49,792.13 Closing balance 57.054.24 37,755.41 Note: When we registered as a Charitable Incorporated Charity ICIOI with the Charity Commission In 2022 our legal status changed. As a result, our bank required us to close our old account and open a new Community (business) Account. Our new account was opened in February 2024 and was run in parallel with our old account until we were able to transfer all the transactlons from the old account to the new. The old account was closed on 23rd Sept 2024. The accounts presented here are a consolidation of the two bank accounts. Accounts- Analytlcal Revlew We are very grateful to our donors who have supported us so generously with both monev and gifts of canned and packeted foodstuffs and cleaning and hygiene products throughout the year.
Using rounded figures for simplicity, our total income from donations, reduced significantly from £50,600to £37,600,. a drop of almost 26%. However, this was balanced; partly by a reduction of £4,200 in the spend on food, partly by our work, last year, encouraging eligible donors to glft aid, which raised almost £3,400 and partly by a delay of purchasing £5,OC worth of Christmas vouchers into the 2024-25 reporting year. All the other financial income and spend was similar between years. Desprte the significant fall in monetary donations, our net income over the year showed a major increase of £19,300, compared to our net income of £5,800 in the previous year. As a result our balance carried forward has increased to over £55,000, from £22.755 last year. However, we have already committed to spend £12,000 of our reserves by providing financlal support to some of our partners so that they can provide additional services to our clients in 2024125. Unfortunately, we were not able to talk to these organisations before the end ofthe 2023-24 financial year. Hence, discussions will take place in the new financial year. People have agaln, been extr30rdlnarlly generous. About £13,000 came from a few large donors- £5,000 in a grant from Dorset Council,. a few private individuals gave large donations, including one £2500 donation and, four donations between £IOOO and £1,500 and three greater than £500. The rest has come from the hundreds of donations, many small, a few up to £500. some regular and some one-offs all adding together to make the ma8nificent total. In addition to this we receive amazing support from many individuals and organisations in the form of actual food, hygiene and cleaning products, which never appear In the financlal records. In order to glve our clients some personal control over creatin8 their own Christmas, £6,250 worth of supermarket vouchers were distributed to our cllents lone £30 voucher per person) in the weeks running up to Christmas.1£2500 of which were brought fOard from last year.) These vouchers were 8reatly appreciated, as it gave the opportunity for some of the families to buy small Christmas presents for their children. Without these vouchers, some of the children would have had nothing. This year £1800 was also spent on Boots vouchers (which are used, mainly, for formula milk and/ or nappies, which we don't have the space to store). This was similar to the amount spent last year. To conclude, we have been blessed with financial and physlcal donations to meet our need5 this year and, again, we thank all our donors. Chair: emary Hardwick Date..
Independent examlner's report to the trustees of Dorchester FoodBank I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the Dorchester FoodBank (the FoodBank) for the year ended 30 September 2024. Responsibilities and basis of report As the charity trustees of the FoodBank you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 ('the Act.). I report in respect of my examination of the FoodBank's accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed all 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 giving me cause to believe that in any material respect: l. accountlng records were not kept In respe of Ihe FoodBank as requlred by section 130 of the Acl. or 2. the accounts do not accord with those records. I 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. Signed.. Name (PRINT): Date.. 21 SF JAfuA-Pl 201