Galashiels and Area Foodbank (GAF)
Trustees’ Annual Report (Final) 6 April 2024 to 05 April 2025
Charity contact information
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Galashiels and Area Foodbank
Scottish Charity Number: SC050850
Address: St Peters Church, Parsonage Road, Galashiels.
Postcode: TD1 3HS.
Website: https://galashielsfoodbank.co.uk/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Charity-Organization/Galas hiels-Foodbank-2318211215060763/
21
Charity Trustees
Our current Trustee committee comprises 5 individuals currently serving at the time of this report. MM resigned as a Trustee in December 2024
3]
Objectives and activities
Galashiels and Area Foodbank was created by the members of local churches in the Scottish Borders and operated for a number of years as a voluntary organisation. It was incorporated as a charity in March 2021.
The organisation’s purposes are to relieve poverty, suffering and distress of persons in the Scottish Borders by providing food and other items free or at subsidised cost.
On a weekly and emergency basis we supply food and other necessities to individuals and families throughout the Galashiels and wider area. We are grateful to receive both financial and food donations from a wide range of businesses and individuals. Our wonderful volunteers collect donations, shop, prepare food packages and distribute them to our clients.
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Structure, governance and management
Type of governing document
Galashiels and Area Foodbank is governed by its constitution which is managed by the Charity Trustees in their capacity as Members of the organisation.
The charity operates as a single tier SCIO.
Trustee recruitment and appointment
No Trustees were appointed during the period.
No external organisations are allowed to appoint charity trustees.
1sTFTOS
Achievements and performance
The charity continued to support our clients throughout the past year, providing weekly and emergency food parcels. We continued to see a large number of families and individuals affected by the cost of living crisis and inflation pressures. Our Christmas period was very busy once again with a distribution of food, clothing and donated presents to over 150 families and individuals.
We continued to operate a pick up and storage point at the Focus centre which has been a great success allowing our clients easier access at more convenient times to support their needs.
We have also moved to an ‘open table’ approach at St Peters Church which allows our clients to select the items the need. The introduction of this approach has been a great success both for providing more appropriate items and assisting with our stock management.
In 2025 we are now regularly assisting around 100 families and individuals each week and we are grateful to all our donors, volunteers and supporters for their help in meeting that continuing demand.
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We regularly receive financial donations and collections of food from a wide variety of organisations and individuals in the area for which we are very grateful.
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Our wonderful volunteers give up a great deal of their time and skill to keep our charity operating. We are extremely grateful to them for their hard work, compassion and commitment. From collecting food donations, fund raising, shopping, preparing food parcels, driving, delivering and more, they do it all tirelessly week in and week out with a cheery smile. Together they donate both their time and resources and this year we estimate they provided well over 10,000 hours of time and give over £100,000 worth of assistance freely to the charity.
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Financial review
The charity’s financial position remained sound during the period. The charity started the year with funds of £44,221. During the period combined donations and grant income of £108,819 was received. We saw a lower level of demand than the prior year and expenditure was £57,381 in total of which £50,490 was spent on food. The remaining expenses were items such as rent of premises, maintenance and one off expenses on IT. The charity ended the period with a bank balance of £95,660.
A special thanks toi for agreeing to act as our Independent Examiner again this year.
Statement of the charity’s policy on reserves
The requirement for a Reserves Policy is to allow the continuing operation of GAF by ensuring that sufficient funding is on hand to cope with both expected and unexpected changes in client demand or donor income. It allows the Trustees a period of time to take sufficient action to ensure the long term continuation of the organisation.
In setting the Reserves Policy the trustees took note of the regular running costs of the organisation, the frequency of additional or unexpected expenditure from a historical perspective, views on future needs and support and the time required to raise additional funds or take measures to address issues.
With this in mind the Trustees have decided that a reserve of £10,000 be set for GAF. The view taken is that this represents approximately 3-4 months of normal expenditure and 3-4 times the size of the largest one off expense the Trust has had. This reserve sum could therefore cover a period of additional demand, reduced donations or unexpected expenditure allowing suitable actions to be taken to address both.
This policy and Reserve sum has been in place from 17/03/2021 and is reviewed bi-annually and adjusted if any of the underlying factors considered in setting the reserve sum change.
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At the end of the period the trustees noted that the reserves policy requirement was covered by the cash asset held by the Charity.
Details of any deficit
The charity did not operate with any deficit during the period
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Donated facilities and services
The charity is extremely grateful for the wide and varied support that we receive both regularly and through one off events.
Food Donations
We are fortunate to be supported by businesses and individuals in the area who regularly collect or donate food on our behalf:
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e Asda Galashiels
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e Booker Galashiels
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e Borders General Hospital Melrose Ambulance Station
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e Farmfoods Galashiels
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e Macdonalds Galashiels
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e Marks and Spencer Galashiels
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e Poundland Galashiels
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e Tesco Galashiels
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e The Co-op Melrose
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e Warburton Bakers
Additionally our local churches and congregations supply a regular collection. We are also very grateful to our local schools, clubs and associations for the drives and collections they organise
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e Balmoral Primary School
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e Gala Fairydean Rovers Football Club
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e Clovenfords Primary School
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e Glendinning Primary School
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e Melrose Primary School
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e St Margarets School
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e St Marys School Melrose
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e St Peters School Galashiels
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e Bowden and Melrose Church of Scotland
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e Caddonfoot Parish
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e Galashiels Baptist Church
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e Holy Trinity Church Melrose
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e Old and St Pauls Church
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e St Peters Church Galashiels
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e Stow and Heriot Parish
Financial Donations
We are fortunate to receive financial donations from individuals, businesses and other charities. Our regular monthly donations are the backbone of our fundraising and we would like to put on record our gratitude to all those who have made this commitment both directly and through our JustGiving page. While we cannot name them all here we would like them to Know it makesa real difference.
We have also been publicly supported by a number of institutions throughout the year and we are very happy to acknowledge their assistance.
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e Arnold Clark Community Fund
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e Corra Foundation
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e Foundation Scotland
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e Rooney Foundation
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e Scottish Borders Council (Financial Inclusion Fund, Community Welfare Trust and other trust grants managed by SBC)
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e Unison Scottish Borders Branch
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e Rotary Club Gala
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e Rotary Club Melrose
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e Robertson Trust
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e Weir Trust
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e National Lottery
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e Stow Community Trust
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Future plans
During the next period the charity will continue its main purpose of relieving poverty and suffering for people in the area via the provision of food.
The Food Bank continues to be a member of the Eildon Community Hub Meeting and continues to engage with a variety of government and charitable institutions involved in the alleviation of hunger and poverty.
With the success of this years ‘open table' initiative allowing our clients more choice, the charity will continue to build out this concept to offer more and better food choices for those in need. We will continue to monitor the local communities cost of living challenges and seek to help where we can.
We are fortunate to have secured multi year funding from a variety of sources which give us certainty on planning and delivering our services from multiple locations. The trustees will continue to examine the best mix of locations for allowing access to food for those with additional travel or time restrictions.
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Declaration
Signed on behalf of the charity trustees:
Designation:
Trustee
Date
26 August 2025
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| Galashiels andArea | Area Foodbank | (GAF) Accounts 2024/2025 | (GAF) Accounts 2024/2025 | SC050850 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Receipts & Payments Account | |||||||
| forthe period | From: | Saturday, April 06, 2024 | |||||
| To: | Saturday, April 05, 2025 | ||||||
| Receipts | 2024-25 | 2024-25 | 2024-25 | 2023-24 | 2023-24 | 2023-24 | |
| Restricted | General | Total | Restricted | General | Total | ||
| £ | £ | ||||||
| Donations | 60,619.92 | 60,619.92 | 0.00 | 58,630.13 | 58,630.13 | ||
| Bank interest | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | ||
| Grants | 48,200.00 | 48,200.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | ||
| Miscellaneous | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | ||
| 0.00 | 108.819.92 | 108.819.92 | 0.00 | 58.630.13 | 58.630.13 | ||
| Payments | |||||||
| Food | 50,490.27 | 50,490.27 | 0.00 | 80,811.73 | 80,811.73 | ||
| Rent | 4,750.00 | 4,750.00 | 0.00 | 3,150.00 | 3,150.00 | ||
| Phone | 163.21 | 163.21 | 0.00 | 162.48 | 162.48 | ||
| Misc (incl bags) | 514.26 | 514.26 | 0.00 | 1,077.64 | 1,077.64 | ||
| Insurance | 678.90 | 678.90 | 0.00 | 671.68 | 671.68 | ||
| Maintenance | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | ||
| Vouchers for Client Distribution | 100.00 | 100.00 | 0.00 | 1,200.00 | 1,200.00 | ||
| Lowand SlowScheme | 0.00 | 0.00 | 326.56 | 326.56 | |||
| Just GivingSubs | 514.80 | 514.80 | 0.00 | 446.50 | 446.50 | ||
| IT Equipment | 169.99 | 169.99 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | ||
| 57,381.43 | 57,381.43 | 0.00 | 87,846.59 | 87,846.59 | |||
| Total Expenditure | 57,381.43 | 87,846.59 | |||||
| Deficit/Surplusforperiod | £51,.438.49 | -£29.216.46 |
| Statement of Balances | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| April | April | ||
| 2025 | 2024 | ||
| Broughtforward Cash | 44 221.87 | ||
| Surplus for period | 51,438.49 | ||
| Cash atend ofperiod | £95,660.36 | £44,221.87 | |
| Bank balances atend ofperiod | £95660.36 | ||
| £0.00 | |||
| Assets | |||
| Sundry Debtors | £54.46 | ||
| Otherassets | (AtTrustees valuation atyear end) | ||
| Laptop | £100.00 | £200.00 | |
| Fridge at St Peters | £100.00 | £200.00 | |
| Fridge at Focus | £200.00 | £400.00 | |
| Phone | £50.00 | £100.00 | |
| Printer | £100.00 | £0.00 | |
| Total OtherAssets | £550.00 | £900.00 | |
| Liabilities | |||
| SundryCreditors | £1,098.81 | £0.00 |
Independent Examiner’s report on the accounts to the members of Galashiels and Area Food Bank SCIO
I report on the accounts of Galashiels and Area Food Bank SCIO for the period ended 5[th] April 2025, which are set out on the attached pages.
Respective responsibilities of trustees and examiner
The charity’s trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the terms of the Charities and Trustees Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended).
The charity trustees consider that the audit requirement of Regulation 10(1) (d) of the Accounts Regulations does not apply. It is my responsibility to examine the accounts as required under section 44(1) (c) of the Act and to state whether particular matters have come to my attention.
Basis of independent examiner’s statement
My examination is carried out in accordance with Regulation 11 of the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts, and seeks explanations from the trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit and, consequently, I do not express an opinion on the view given by the accounts.
Independent examiner’s statement
In the course of my examination no matter has come to my attention
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which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in any material respect the requirements - to keep accounting records in accordance with Section 44 (1) (a) of the 2005 Act and Regulation 4 of the 2006 Accounts Regulations, and
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to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records and comply with Regulation 9 of the 2006 Accounts Regulations (as amended)
have not been met, or
- to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
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25 August 2025