Co-ordinator's re ort st This report covers the year 1 April'23- 31 st March-'24. 1654 vouchers issued- 5313 people helped . That is up by 14 % on the previous year. That equates to heLping 554 more peopLe. Last year the split of distribution workload was 47 % - Orangefield 53% - Dundonald This year it is more Like a 50150 spLit during this period. This percentage increase is much less than 2022-23 when we saw a doubling of the vouchers issued from 2021-22. Last Christmas saw 220 packs issued. These were matched with Christmas bags that contained a bag of seasonaL treats and also a £20 meat voucher. - vouchers More agencies are now using our e-voucher referral. This is an encouraging step change awayfrom papervouchers. We believe this is a more efficient way of processingvouchers which our admin staff would wholeheartedly agree with. This goes hand in hand asking clients to get a referral from an agency before coming to the foodbank for help, after their initial visit to the foodbank. This means that more people are being seen or at least listened to by our referral agencies. The referral agencies are also often better informed and trained on the benefit system can advise clients on potentiaL other help and support that may be availabLe to them.
Referral a enci Top 5 referral agencies . 1) BWC-17% 2) MLA/MPOffices-14% 3) Advice Centres ( EBIAC, Advice Nl, Advice Space ) - 9 % 4) FSRoma-5% During this time self-referrals to OrangefieLd- 28 % . to DundonaLd- 15% These have changed slightly in that we have seen an increase in the use of M LAS and slightly less self-referrals. 43 % of all vouchers fulfilled were from seLf-referrals as opposed to 49 % in same period Last year. 2023-24 '%of overall total 53% 24% 5% Donated In kg (% of source total) 23586.65 10463.68 Stock In source Supermarkets Churches Individualls) Educations Other Purchased- by Foodbank 31yo 11% Totals 39309.48 loo% Approximately 637 kilos more stock than previous year. Just over 110/0 of that was purchased. ermark 60 % of all donated stock comes from Asda and Tesco. Tesco remain our number one source offood donations. This has increased slightly 44.5 % (2.5% increase ) of all our incoming stock duringthis period came from public donations through Tesco. This partnership is faciLitated by TrusselL Trust. In terms of church giving 2nd Comber were the most generous of the churches in terms of food donations which is closely foLlowed by Dundonald Elim.
oandA iv We continued to raise food donations through our food drives at Tesco and Asda. This helps greatly with our stock over the winter period. Our foodbank volunteers in Dundonald and Orangefield continue to support us in these events. We our continuing to increase the number of extra volunteers ( not foodbank volunteers) who have come forward to help out at these events. vert The Fuelbank Foundation continue to be an amazing resource for people in fueL crisis. We are 1 of 800 Fuelbank partners supporting people across the UK in this way. The Fuelbank aspire to give people 10 days of support and they tailorthe amount they offer with this in mind. We issued 232 fueLvouchers duringthe year. li 4G/Torr Bank SpeciaL School have continued to work with us in the foodbank on a Wednesday, heLping out with dating and sorting stock. We're delighted to have them on board. First Aid-we now have trained Emergency First Aiders on all shifts in Dundonald. New windows have been installed recently to provide ventilation and emergency fire exit upstairs. Qthor..ne_ Belfast City Council Hardship Fund- 72 % of clients usingthe foodbank came from Belfast City Council so we were able to qualifyfor this grant which was for almost £9.5K. The Henderson group are continuingto support us. Guarantee our Essentials Campaign. This campaign continues through the Trussell Trust and the work of the foodbanks to bring awareness to the governmentthat growing numbers of peopLe in the UK do not have enough money to cover their basic essentials.