Newslink Autumn Winter 2015

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Autumn / Winter 2015

“The foodbank really helped and was there for me in every way.”

Read Marcella’s story on page 6

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Autumn / Winter 2015

THANK YOU for your ongoing support It’s been another busy few months and I would like to thank each one of you who have helped us to assist even more people facing hunger.

You’ve helped us to provide hope to people, like the mum who recently told us: “The foodbank was there when we really needed it, it was an absolute lifeline. If it hadn’t been there I don’t know what we would’ve done.”

As you will read in the following pages, we’ve seen lots of new developments at The Trussell Trust recently. We have started to roll-out additional More Than Food services, to provide support beyond emergency food and to help people break out of crisis long term.

We’ve also honed our mission and vision to focus on UK poverty, which has included the decision to release our overseas work to our experienced incountry charity partner, FSCI, which we founded in 2009.

This will allow both charities to concentrate on their respective areas of specialty, working to tackle poverty in Bulgaria and the UK. We are excited to move forward with you to end hunger in the UK. With your help, we can continue to be a lifeline for the struggling mum with nowhere else to turn. And we can make sure that her story is heard so that fewer people face hunger in the future.

Once again thank you for your continued support.

David McAuley - Chief Executive

“The foodbank was there when we really needed it, it was an absolute lifeline.”

A mum at a foodbank

Contents 4-5

News and updates

Number of three days’ emergency food interventions given to people in crisis

Marcella’s Story

8 Top six primary referral causes in 2014-2015 to Trussell Trust foodbanks

9

More Than Food Programme

10

Holiday Meals Project

11

Jay’s Story

12

A Day in the Life of a Foodbank Manager

13

Social Enterprise

14

6

Volunteer Profile

Bulgaria and the Balkans

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News Launch of Fuel banks A three month pilot scheme working with energy supplier nPower, saw the nation’s first fuel bank launched, to help those living in fuel poverty. Placed initially in 21 foodbank distribution centres, it enables struggling households to receive a fuel bank voucher worth up to two-weeks’ credit, to top up pre-paid gas and electricity meters, alongside emergency food aid.

#Everycanhelps Well done to our wonderful volunteers for making the July Neighbourhood Food Collection in partnership with Tesco and Fareshare such a success. A record number of 3.6 million meals were donated, which was an incredible 13% increase on last summer’s collection! Once again, Tesco generously topped-up all donations by 30%, helping foodbanks to cover their operating costs, as well as develop services in their community.

Holiday hunger research The Isolation and Hunger report released

by Kellogg’s in July, explored the reality of school holidays for struggling families.

It discovered that a third of parents have skipped a meal so that their kids could eat during the school holidays and six out of ten parents with household incomes of less than £25,000 aren’t always able to afford to buy food outside of term time.

Read the report here - bit.ly/1geCHOX

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Autumn / Winter 2015

The Barons’ Charter The cities of Salisbury and Lincoln have both enjoyed having 25 decorated baron sculptures on display for three months over the summer. The successful public art trail was celebrating the 800th anniversary of the sealing of Magna Carta, whilst also helping to raise vital funds for The Trussell Trust.

Comic Relief supports our More Than Food project We are very grateful to Comic Relief who are helping to fund our development of More Than Food. This is our latest initiative, encouraging foodbanks to extend the help offered to clients, in order to address the underlying cause of their crisis and help them break the cycle of poverty.

Festival Fun We’ve enjoyed spreading the word about our work to stop UK hunger at a couple of festivals this summer. We started off at Larmer Tree Festival in Wiltshire and rounded it off at the music and food OnBlackheath Festival in London, where we were thrilled to be the official charity partner for the second year in the row!

Fundraising for foodbanks!

A huge thank you to everyone who has completed a fundraising activity in support of us so far this year! From hunger challenges, giving up 40p for 40 days during Lent, jumping out of planes at 10,000 feet or taking to the streets of London to run 10k - thank you!

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Autumn / Winter 2015

Marcella’s Story

“The foodbank gave me faith that there are people who understand and who you can trust.”

For nine years, Marcella, 32, a trained veterinary nurse from Chelmsford, has suffered from a chronic spinal condition.

Unfortunately, when her health deteriorated, she was forced to stop working to undergo a spinal operation and it was then that she began to notice herself struggling.

She explained: “Sometimes it’s very difficult to manage, even budget, especially when the price of food, gas and electric is not cheap anymore.

It’s so hard to pay rent and survive at the moment. People should not just be surviving though, they should be able to live and have a life.”

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She never expected to have to use a foodbank, but when her benefit support of Employment Support Allowance (ESA) was switched to Job Seekers Allowance (JSA), the payment that she so desperately relies on was delayed and she found herself turning to The Trussell Trust for help.

“The foodbank really helped and was there for me in every way.”

Since then, Marcella’s confidence has improved: “Without their support, I don’t feel like I would have been able to cope.

We need to stop judging people and listen to every individual to understand how they got into the situation.”

Marcella is currently focusing on getting her health back on track and is looking forward to the future.

Marcella explained: “The foodbank gave me faith that there are people who understand and who you can trust. They made me feel comfortable and reassured.”

She continued: “I felt a bit ashamed at not being able to support myself but they took the pressure off. The foodbank really helped and was there for me in every way.”

Marcella is very grateful that the foodbank was able to help her through this difficult time, especially for signposting her to another agency, who have been able to provide her with a social worker for some extra support.

If you’d like to help change the lives of people like Marcella use the form at the back of this booklet.

Thank you!

DONATE

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More than Food Widening our support beyond food

We’ve been supporting our foodbanks to develop More Than Food projects. This is helping clients to address the underlying causes of food poverty through practical services and advice, with 67% of our foodbanks already offering additional support alongside emergency food parcels.

Money management Philanthropist and founder of MoneySavingExpert.com, Martin Lewis, generously funded a pilot study in eight foodbanks across the UK, exploring if having debt advisors directly available at foodbank centres would have a more positive impact than traditional signposting.

The results of the pilot study have been very positive, with many clients taking up the offer of immediate help and 90% of them having made significant progress after three months.

A client who spoke to a financial advisor at Cardiff foodbank said: “Before I met the

advisor at the foodbank I was too scared to go to the advice centre as I felt like such a fool. It feels like a weight off my shoulders, they are helping me do a weekly budget, which I have never done before.”

Martin Lewis is also thrilled with the success of the pilot, he said: “Just having someone to sit and talk to, who’s got a bit of authority and knowledge about the situation can make a massive difference and that’s what More Than Food is all about.”

All the pilot foodbanks wish to continue with this service, having seen a real benefit to clients and we are now developing an operating manual, with preparations underway to roll this service out across The Trussell Trust Foodbank Network.

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Holiday meals project

Supporting struggling families during school holidays The new school term comes as a relief to many families who struggle during the holidays, a time when free school meals are unavailable, combined with the added pressure of funding childcare, as well as activities to entertain children.

The innocent foundation has offered two years’ funding to help The Trussell Trust in setting up a holiday meals project, to support those families that have difficulties coping.

We’ve started by investigating the current holiday meal provisions within our Foodbank Network. These clubs

offer not only food but also a range of fun activities and a chance for families to socialise knowing that they aren’t the only ones struggling.

This is in preparation for a pilot of holiday meal clubs in up to ten foodbanks during Easter 2016, leading to the development of good practice guidelines and an operating model to be rolled out across the Foodbank Network.

By the end of the two years, it’s hoped that up to 50 foodbanks across the network will be hosting meal clubs during the school holidays.

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Jay’s Story “...it’s been a rocky ride, but the foodbank has helped me through it.”

Painter and decorator, Jay, 40 from London, moved to Eastbourne in the hope of finding work and a better life following a relationship breakdown.

Unfortunately, he struggled to find the work that he desperately needed and ended up sleeping outside shop doorways for quite a while.

He explained: “Considering that I’ve worked most of my life and always had money to buy things, it was a shock.”

Fortunately, when he was referred to his local foodbank, Jay was made to feel instantly very welcome.

Not only were they able to assist with food, but they also provided toiletry essentials and clothing, as well as supporting him with furniture when he later moved into his flat.

“The volunteers are very compassionate in what they do, they’ve always tried to help me in any way that they could.”

Jay is still settling into his new place and has since secured a full time decorating job, but he’ll always be grateful for the support that he received from the foodbank.

He said: “My situation has dramatically improved, with a lot of help from the foodbank and local charities. I just hope it can only get better.”

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A Day in the life of a Foodbank Manager Gill’s Story Just six-weeks after giving birth to her daughter, Gill’s first husband passed away.

She began to struggle financially, admitting that there were times when she ate only cereal, in order to make sure that her children were always fed and the bills were paid on time.

Since overcoming this incredibly difficult period in her life, Gill felt inspired to help others and has been managing Glasgow North West Foodbank since 2013.

“I like doing it for my family and knowing I’m not powerless, but I’m making a difference.”

Gill’s daily activities range from sorting stock and making up food parcels, to picking up donations from collection points in town, alongside her team of

dedicated volunteers: “We’re all from different backgrounds but get together to do good; it’s just the way we were raised.”

But it’s the client focused work that Gill admits to prefer the most.

She enjoys welcoming them by offering a friendly ear and a chat to help lift their spirits: “It’s what we’re here for. I’ve been through it and when you tell them that you see their shoulders relax.”

Gill’s particularly delighted with the addition of placing welfare trainers and financial advisors in foodbanks, offering extra support to clients: “I like the challenge of helping someone through all the stages of their crisis and it’s great when you get an end result.”

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Social enterprise Our social enterprise projects and community shops provide affordable goods, helping to generate income, whilst also offering volunteering opportunities and work based skills to many people.

Community Shops It’s been a busy few months for our social enterprise team as our portfolio of community shops have continued to grow.

In June and July, we opened two shops in Southampton, followed by one in Fareham, with queues forming to allow people to see the wonderful stock on display!

Three new shops opened this summer

This now brings our total to thirteen shops across Wiltshire, Dorset and Hampshire, including four dedicated to selling furniture and larger household items.

Giving unwanted goods a second life Other prominent social enterprise activities include upcycling household objects and jewellery making, which are then sold in our community shops.

We also have a team of volunteers involved with furniture and bike restoration; for instance, this unwanted kids wardrobe was creatively restored into a more modern style shelving unit and ended up being sold in one of our shops for ÂŁ100!

900 items

sold each week per shop

before

41 hours weekly

of volunteering input per shop

after

12.5 tonnes

of items donated weekly

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Volunteer Profile Margaret “Volunteering a few hours is my drop in the ocean.”

Retired modern languages teacher and street pastor, Margaret, 69, volunteers at one of our community shops for a few hours once a week, helping to label items and hang up clothes.

Margaret first got involved with the charity in 2012, helping in all departments at our head office, from counting money with the fundraising team to sorting clothes in the warehouse.

She said: “The Trussell Trust is helping people who are really suffering and is meeting the vital need that there is in society.”

When a volunteer gap opened up at our Salisbury shop in May 2014, Margaret jumped at the opportunity to try something new and particularly enjoys

interacting with customers: “I like the contact with the public and it’s good to get out of the house.”

Speaking about the impact she is making, Margaret explained: “Volunteering a few hours is my drop in the ocean. I’m only making a small contribution but if everyone does a little bit it can make a big difference, and who knows, I may even need to use a foodbank one day.”

Volunteer for us Could you offer a few hours of your time each week like Margaret?

You can volunteer in our shops, our warehouse or in your local foodbank. www.trusselltrust.org/volunteer

Have you checked our online stores on Ebay, Amazon and Etsy?

You’ll find some incredible bargains. To visit our online shops please follow these links:

bit.ly/tt-amazon

bit.ly/tt-ebay

bit.ly/tt-etsyshop

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BULGARIA and the Balkans...

Following the enormous growth of the foodbank network in recent years and after a period of reflection, The Trussell Trust has refined its vision to focus on ending hunger and poverty in the UK. The work that we started in Bulgaria in 1997 will now continue through the Foundation for Social Change and Inclusion (FSCI), an independent incountry organisation, which The Trussell Trust set up in 2009.

FSCI has three main programmes and with other Eastern European countries facing very similar issues, FSCI has begun work to grow its projects across the Balkans.

House of Opportunity – offering state care leavers and other vulnerable young people a safe path to independent living, free from the threat of criminal exploitation and severe poverty.

Early Years Education – using communitybased kindergartens to increase access to primary education for Roma children.

Social Enterprise – practical projects teaching young people transferable skills to help them find, get and keep jobs.

Summer and winter camps providing vulnerable children with a holiday to remember will continue to run, as well as the annual Christmas box appeal, spreading joy as presents are distributed across Bulgarian communities.

We want to thank you for helping The Trussell Trust’s Bulgaria projects over the years. We hope you will keep supporting FSCI as it continues to transform lives.

To keep up-to-date with the work of FSCI and for more information please contact: richard.parsons@trusselltrust.org

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THANK YOU We are overwhelmed by the continual support we receive from people, businesses and other organisations, helping to change the lives of those like Marcella and Jay. Thank you for helping The Trussell Trust to make a positive and lasting impact on the lives of thousands of people facing poverty and crisis. Let’s stop UK hunger together.

Children from Chafyn Grove School show their support for foodbanks.

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Contact us Unit 9, Ashfield Trading Estate, Ashfield Road, Salisbury SP2 7HL

twitter.com/trusselltrust

enquiries@trusselltrust.org

facebook.com/trusselltrust

01722 580 180

www.trusselltrust.org The Trussell Trust is a charity founded on Christian principles that partners with local communities to combat poverty in the UK. Registered Charity in England & Wales (1110522) and Scotland (SC044246).

Registered Limited Company in England & Wales (5434524).

Photography credits: Alexandra Smart, Gabriel Bahnareanu, Graham Ormiston, Ian Esson, Julie Kaye and Patricia White.