Norwich Foodbank: Update 221, 11 April 2025
Hello! It’s been another busy fortnight and if you are reading this on Friday before 4pm (!) there is a team at Tesco Blue Boar, finishing off a two-day collection – I’ll share next time the stats and stories
Reflection
I had the pleasure of speaking to the Wroxham Bure Valley Rotary club on Monday evening – a group who have been supportive of the foodbank for many years with volunteers (supporting our Bishop’s Garden open days and supermarket collections), donations, several visits from myself and Grant (Norwich foodbank’s founding Project Manager) over our 15 years, and a couple of visits to the warehouse too. Jacqui has been our champion within the club and we’re grateful to remain so high on their radar. It was lovely to give an update on what we have done since we were last together (we think November 2021) and it was also a great opportunity for me to reflect on the new things we are doing and the development of ongoing projects – for example with regards to our partnerships work in 2021, we had Eve from Shelter (our longest standing partner, although usually sitting at Alive ), Jo was our Citizen’s Advice worker, Luan had just started and… that was it! Bowthorpe hadn’t opened, Rachel was on secondment from Henderson Trust (and joined as our official Administrator in 2022) and people were jealous if a friend had managed to get a haircut appointment. Remember those days?!
Branding
You may remember from Update 206 (September 2024) that Trussell went through a rebrand and we are still in the process of adopting it – online stuff and all outgoing paperwork now bears the new logo and we will update the distribution centre signage over coming months. We never had branded clothing before, but it was definitely time to update the supermarket tabbards and the new branding has given us the opportunity. We now have polo-shirts that can be worn over your own clothes, plus a couple of fleeces which we’ll keep in the warehouse for practical ‘keep warm’ reasons and spontaneous photos which often happen when people drop off a donation. See attached for the t-shirts ‘in action’ at Tesco yesterday, beautifully modelled by Michael, Joan and Brigit. Thank you to Rachel for the work on getting these done and those of you who filled in the survey in September, we’ll be in touch when we’ve worked out what’s possible.
Appreciation
I have shared this with the appropriate teams, but wanted to share some feedback from our Shelter worker Luan, who sent me a lovely message about two experiences she had last week at different centres:
‘Yesterday a very vulnerable, elderly gentleman who is homeless and frequents the foodbank often was not in a good way. I popped off to Primark to buy them a voucher to get some new trousers and the team gathered round, made him hot drinks, gave him chocolate biscuits and helped him in a way it is hard to quantify. It made me very proud to be part of that team and actually quite emotional now writing this to you.
Today I got an email from a volunteer who had discussed with the team how busy last week’s sessions was, knowing I have several clients arranged to catch up with me again this week. They gave me a separate room (all safety cautions provided) to meet with these clients in a confidential space and ‘protect’ me from being interrupted by others using the space who can be helped by our other partners. Again, to know that they have thought of my needs and those of those using the foodbank shows what a wonderful, compassionate team you have there.
I am so grateful that this job gives me the opportunity not just to meet amazing individuals using the foodbanks, but it also allows me to be a part of it. I want to thank you for keeping me on board and allowing me to be a continued part of this remarkable journey. I appreciate them and you!’
I wanted to share this because we know we are helping the individual or family or household coming for our support, but the knock-on effect on others around us – in the room or building or just walking past and seeing or hearing – is HUGE. Thank you everyone for what you do and how you just care and help and probably don’t consider it – it’s just natural
Phone Support
We are incredibly grateful for all the volunteer roles you fill – and there are a LOT! When the first lockdown came in 2020 and things moved online and we set up phone and data entry rotas (and route planners!), we thought it would be quite temporary… However, it showed us how much is possible from different sites and how we can include people who want to be involved but aren’t able to travel or who have a skill we’d not considered utilising before and it has been fantastic to grow the team – and we keep growing with new volunteers applying every week! We have 5 volunteers who help us with a phone shift (and 2 of them do 2 shifts a week ), 3 from the office in Earlham and 2 from home. We would be really grateful for another couple of people – a Wednesday morning and a Friday afternoon. This means we can have time to attend meetings, get stuck into a report or data analysis, be present at different areas of the charity (centres / warehouse / supermarket collections) and know that people who need us or need information can still get a response. We will definitely be available for tricky questions (there’s always one of these!) and would suggest that even if someone would like to help from home, the first shift or two would be done in the office with in-person support. If you are interested or able (and fortnightly / monthly would still be helpful) please do email Jon [email protected] or myself and we can have a chat. All we ask is that you are a good listener, able to signpost to appropriate support (with training) and can use a computer (with training on the foodbank’s data system).
Wellbeing Champion Training
We are in conversation with colleagues at MIND (mental health support) and are delighted that they will be coming into distribution centres as an advice partner to chat to those who visit us and triage / signpost, on a rota basis. It will be monthly at a few sites to start with and I’ll be in touch with the lucky few (based on MIND staff rotas) as soon as I have dates. They have also shared a free public course called ‘Wellbeing Champion’ training – not to train someone to give advice on mental health, but similar to the session Richard from The Samaritans led for us. Anyone (publicly available) is welcome to sign up and the next session is Tuesday 29th April at 10.30am online. If you are interested in finding out more, please click here
Trussell Trustees
At the risk of losing you (I can’t help but think of the saying ‘if you love someone, let them go’ ) I’m sharing with you that Trussell are looking for Trustees to join their board. More info including an email address just to ask more questions and an open webinar to find out more can be found here if you, or anyone you know might be interested.
Powerlifting For Poverty
Some of you who know Chris, our British Red Cross worker, and may also know that he is a power lifter He has several medals to his name and has recently qualified for the World Championships! Chris has generously decided to fundraise for us within this event and any funds raised will be used by our partnership workers for emergency items identified by the team (Shelter, Citizen’s Advice, Your Own Place, British Red Cross) for foodbank clients. This will operate in a similar way to how we work with Acts 435, but sometimes that process can take a couple of weeks to come through so this could mean an item is bought within 24 hours and that can make a huge difference to someone in a crisis. To read more about Chris’ story and to share with your own networks to spread the word, please read here and share the link.
TESTIMONY
I was at Mile Cross last week and a lady came in who clearly would rather have been anywhere else. Her partner was very quiet but supportive, as every now and then she reached out and he would hold her hand. She suddenly asked if she could use the loo and as I showed her where it was she started crying, very overwhelmed that life had taken this turn and she was needing to ask for help. After we sorted the food, we gently encouraged her to chat with Chris, our Red Cross worker and over the next half an hour or so, various issues were shared including a huge utility bill, ongoing health issues and worries about the Easter holidays. She shared that she has started to insure her car weekly – more expensive in the long run but it means she can cancel it for a week if she knows she’s not going out and so feels more in control and can budget weekly. I found this an interesting and seemingly counteractive measure: less money to insure for a year, but if you don’t have that lump sum to do it, it works out a much higher weekly price. Is this the ‘poverty tax’ in action…? With regards to her utilities, she said the beep that tells her she’s run out of credit plays havoc with her mind – what have I got to do today that I need electric for, what do I need to prioritise, how long before it goes off again? What an awful way to live with that hanging over you. We were able to encourage her with a few immediate actions, including signing up for activities for the children in the holidays and a follow up appointment with Chris to go through the details of the various concerns. Her partner also opened up after a while, sharing that he also had some concerns and so Chris was able to reassure him that we could help him too. It was quite a privilege to be involved in the conversation, and to literally see the change in her face and body language – nothing was immediately resolved, but we cared and said we’d work with her to get things moving in the right direction and that was enough to leave with happy tears instead of despairing ones.
Easter Times
Just a reminder that the office, warehouse and relevant distribution centres will be CLOSED on Good Friday (18th April, next week) and Easter Monday (21st April). The fab team at Chantry are open as usual on Saturday 19th. Drivers, if you usually do a collection / delivery on a Friday or Monday please do speak to John H (via the [email protected]) to arrange an alternative or Keith ([email protected]). The warehouse is open officially 9am – 1pm on Thursday 17th (but there is usually a team in til around 2.30pm) and 11am – 1pm on Tuesday 22nd.
Happy Friday everyone – whether you’re working with us today at a distribution centre, warehouse, office, driving or at Tesco or doing your own thing; I hope you have a lovely day and a great weekend when it arrives.
Hannah
