Norwich foodbank: update 207

Good morning! Autumn is upon us, its rainy and windy out there today (at least where I am) so stay safe if you’re out and about. I started this update on a train yesterday, following attending a Trussell conference in London so apologies that I’m sending it later than usual as I didn’t quite finish it before getting home 🙂

The theme of the conference I attended yesterday (which is one of 9 roadshows across the UK foodbanks across the network will be attending) was ‘togetherness’. The new tagline with the Trussell logo is ‘ending hunger together’ and their current strategy is called ‘Together for Change’ so this word and theme comes up a lot; so much of what we do is with / in partnership / supportive / collaborative. I was at a table with East Grinstead, Watford, Chichester, Rainham, Sutton, Hackney and Brighton (or it might have been Hove actually) and, having been involved with the foodbank for a LONG time (some colleagues joined this year and many joined in 2020/2021) it was really interesting that, compared with some foodbanks we are doing LOTS and compared with others, THEY are doing so much more. Many foodbanks operate within a larger charity so X charity does ABC and one of those activities / projects / services is ‘foodbank’. I heard of one foodbank who owns / runs a bowling alley (there was no other context so I don’t know if its an employment opportunity or operated purely as a source of income); one does ‘skills acquisition’ through free sewing classes; one has a staff team of 20 and 400 volunteers; one is run by a married couple and less than 20 volunteers; one regularly runs trolley dashes in supermarkets with their corporate partners filling (then paying for) the contents. She referred to the trollies as ‘old lady trollies’ and, I don’t want to be disrespectful,  but Google tells me they are known as ‘granny trollies’! (I will be looking at this last idea  but not the bowling alley just FYI…) I had lunch with a lady who was the foodbank’s first ever paid staff member and was feeling very overwhelmed. I have heard several times recently ‘comparison is the thief of joy’ and was reminded yesterday about the story of the man on the beach watching a boy throw starfish back in the sea: ‘I’ve made a difference to that one’ (see attached). A couple of us encouraged this lady by explaining our position – length of time in operation / number of staff and volunteers / opportunities available to us. I know in Norwich, we have a wealth of services that aren’t available throughout the county so often at meetings with other Norfolk foodbanks we (Norwich) are doing a lot more, but some of that is because of where we are and where partners want or need to be. I definitely appreciate the theme of ‘together’ as reflected (I hope) in these updates – so much of what I report is about YOU and other people who make what we collectively do possible. Thank you.

Jon, Katherine and I have had the pleasure of meeting with 2 people who have recently used the foodbank, with the express purpose of them telling us more about their experiences of our service and our partnered services (Age UK, Citizens Advice, British Red Cross, Shelter, Your Own Place). One gave a brilliant example of ‘reverse jenga’, with all the different people and organisations who had helped put pieces of his life back together. I’ve heard the analogy of a jigsaw several times, but the jenga image felt like another level to this, with gaps being filled – exactly what we envisioned with having our partners on site helping people. Thank you all for your contributions day in day out in helping people in ways you’re probably not even aware of sometimes. The difference made and how these two people expressed it was humbling – and that’s just two people!

Thank you so much for filling the rotas for our upcoming collections – we’ll be at Asda Hall Road and Norwich Theatre Royal in October, collecting donations and talking about our work to supporters. For those who didn’t see the call-out, we are collecting on a few occasions during the week long run of  ‘Come From Away’ at the Theatre 

As we’re past the 25th September, it’s slightly more acceptable to mention Christmas…  We will be having cards for sale in the office and at the Original Charity Christmas Card Shop in St Peter Mancroft once again, from mid-October. We’ll also be doing the ‘Giving Tree’ with referred families receiving gifts from matched donors and we have several corporate teams booked in between now and the end of the year to help with (what we hope will be!) increased support. We of course don’t hope for increased demand, quite the opposite, but we do usually see a rise in the need for support due to the colder weather and pressures on finances so it’s always good to have plans in place for extra help.

I have been in conversation with a couple of distribution centres – BookBank is coming to Norwich with thanks to Chantry’s Rachel for starting this conversation. More info below; it will pilot in Bowthorpe on a Friday morning (with the possibility of going to other centres in due course) and they are looking for volunteers. Anyone interested would be volunteering directly with BookBank in partnership with us, so if you are already a volunteer at Bowthorpe foodbank, please note that this role is separate and can’t be done at the same time as a foodbank rota shift.

How? Bookbanks requires a minimum commitment of 2 hours per month for 6 months, and provides an evening’s training to all volunteers, plus ongoing support and some travel expenses.

In this first instance, please do email me (Hannah) and I’ll collate a list (if we’re lucky enough to get a few of you interested!) and then I’ll forward to my contact.

We have had this offer and was asked to send round to you all. My caveat is that it was a ‘cold call’ email and not someone we know so you do it at your own risk