Community
TIMES OF CHANGE AT SHERBORNE FOOD BANK Julie and Kane Clements
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here’s plenty of ground to cover this month as a lot has been happening since our last article. After Covid restrictions were eased over the summer, demand for our service fell, which was good news. This lull allowed us to carry out a reorganisation of the depot to improve health and safety and we were able to replace old racking with safer wheeled units which make better use of the space. Many thanks to our donors whose generosity enabled these purchases, their kindness also paves the way for essential work to be carried out on the building later this year. The quiet period also means we have built up some reserves of food, which is good, especially ahead of Christmas. This has been helped by a bumper set of donations from local harvest festivals. On two mornings alone the incoming volumes were almost overwhelming. Thank you all for your terrific generosity, however, we are overflowing with dried pasta, tinned soup, cereals and the inevitable baked beans! An urgent plea - our storage is limited and when we build up excess stocks, trying to store them interferes with depot operations, particularly on packing days. So we would be grateful if you could donate other items, as we can’t store any more of these for the time being. The food and essential goods donated creates a direct link between you and people in need. Our role in gathering and distributing them is at the heart of what we do and this works brilliantly for every day items. But things get patchy, however, with baby food 20 | Sherborne Times | December 2021
Image: Katharine Davies
or gluten-free and other dietary needs because demand for these is unpredictable. Infant formula is particularly problematic. We must send out the right brand and number and inevitably donated stock doesn’t match what is needed. The same goes for baby food in jars. Therefore, for little ones we welcome nappies, wipes, all-over body wash and shampoo. The eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed that the Food Bank advert in the Sherborne Times has changed. We are encouraging donations via Just Giving. Those pay for the special items and go further via Gift Aid. They are also vital to our new initiative. As of September we started distributing fresh fruit and veg and bread each week. It’s been going well and we’re still learning. We initially bought from supermarkets, as calculating how much to buy was a work in progress, but we’re now dealing with wholesale suppliers to make our funds go further. As before, no donations of fresh food please. The recent spike in Covid numbers, along with energy price increases, have affected demand. Almost overnight we’ve doubled parcel numbers, mostly for families. Fortunately the work of our fantastic team of tireless volunteers has left us well placed to cope with a difficult winter. Lastly, as usual but no less heartfelt, thank you all so much for your support and generosity. sherbornefoodbank.org
