Norwich Foodbank: Update 235
Good morning!
In the last update, I shared about the welcome offered at distribution centres to both foodbank and social visitors. After the Friday session at Bowthorpe, I received this lovely update: ‘Bookbank had a number of visitors, the team in the kitchen did well and Rachael was good at giving time to a new social visitor who otherwise would have been alone throughout and would have left without meaningful conversation. This particular point was raised in your email and shared with other positives at the pre-session team briefing!’ Thanks team 
Brilliant Brownies
We welcomed a new Brownies pack to the warehouse after the last update and they did great work, unpacking some of the pallets of tins and got more than 30 crates filled in 1.5 hours. What do the warehouse teams think of that timing…?! They also donated 4 crates of our most needed items, having asked for money contributions last term and it was humbling to hear that one Brownie gave some of her pocket money every single week! Lastly, they took a vote during the evening about whether they will support a different charity next year or keep with the foodbank and… 
they chose the foodbank again! Great stuff!
they chose the foodbank again! Great stuff!Harvest Update
As the warehouse and transport teams know, we have had LOADS of harvest donations from schools, churches and businesses which has been brilliant to see. We also had a large donation of cereal (we have asked for milk next time!) from Eaton Primary school who made a dominoes run through the school and it had over 1 million views on social media and was picked up by BBC Look East For a bit of context, we recorded just over 7 tonnes of ‘stock in’ during the month of September and have already recorded just over 6 tonnes for October…!
Church Award 
Wroxham and Hoveton URC have recently been awarded a ‘Faith in Action’ award! 
Very well done to the team there. The information submitted included the foodbank (see attached photo) which has been hosted there since 2013 and also the community cafe that runs alongside foodbank every Thursday. The church team said, ‘Throughout the last twelve years, we as a church family have made those who come [to the foodbank / cafe] part of the family too. We see our role primarily as being to show the love of God to those who attend, which in turn inspires those who help. We pray to be a faith-led, welcoming church.’
Very well done to the team there. The information submitted included the foodbank (see attached photo) which has been hosted there since 2013 and also the community cafe that runs alongside foodbank every Thursday. The church team said, ‘Throughout the last twelve years, we as a church family have made those who come [to the foodbank / cafe] part of the family too. We see our role primarily as being to show the love of God to those who attend, which in turn inspires those who help. We pray to be a faith-led, welcoming church.’New Pallet Truck
We had a gift from Waveney Foodbank of a pallet truck as they had upgraded theirs, which will be very helpful in Unit 12, especially as the Sheffield orders and boxes are delivered on pallets. Andy demonstrated its use and got his eye in using it under the watchful gazes of John and myself 
BookBank Update
Following the last update, there was a really lovely piece in The Times about BookBank as part of their ‘Get Britain Reading Campaign’ and so grab a cuppa and have a read here 
BookBank also shared, as they hope to grow to be in 30 foodbanks over the next 5 years, ‘It’s been incredibly meaningful to have Norwich Foodbank as one of our very first partners, and home to one of our friendliest communities.’ Well done Bowthorpe for this lovely feedback!
BookBank also shared, as they hope to grow to be in 30 foodbanks over the next 5 years, ‘It’s been incredibly meaningful to have Norwich Foodbank as one of our very first partners, and home to one of our friendliest communities.’ Well done Bowthorpe for this lovely feedback!Dussindale Visit
Earlier this week, Jon welcomed an enthusiastic group of School Councillors from Dussindale Primary School to our warehouse. They kindly brought nearly 200kg of donations from their harvest festival collection. During the visit, the children had a tour of the warehouse, asked great questions about why people are referred and any trends we see and weighed all of their donations in. It was great to have Dussindale with us again and continue to build relationships with local schools.
Sainsburys Update
Thank you to everyone involved on the days at the collection and in getting the food back to the warehouse. We received £364 in financial gifts and 40+ crates filled with donations which is a brilliant amount! The weight in kg will follow in due course 
New Video Project…
…a message from Katherine: ‘Hannah and I are working on a new video project, and we’d love your help if you are interested 🙂 After listening to feedback from people who’ve used our services, we’ve realised how valuable it would be to show what it’s like to come to a foodbank for the first time. We’re planning to film short videos ateach distribution centre with shots of what the building looks like, where to go when you arrive, accessibility features (like toilets, ramps, seating), showcasing the welcoming environment and friendly faces. These videos will help reduce uncertainty and offer practical information before someone even steps through the door. We’re looking for people to help us film the videos (you don’t need to be a pro!), appear on camera if you’re comfortable, showing the space or demonstrating what happens, assist with setting up the space (likely to be outside of the usual foodbank operating times). Whether you can give a little time or a lot, we’d love to have you involved. You don’t have to volunteer in distribution centres to help, we will be filming at times when foodbank isn’t on. If you’re interested, speak to Hannah or me (my email is [email protected]). We’ll coordinate filming days based on our collective availability and that of the distribution centre. Thanks, as always, for everything you do and if you were part of gathering the feedback that led us to this!’
Network Norfolk Awards
The Network Norfolk Communication Awards ceremony took place last night and it was a pleasure to attend and represent the charity in two categories – ‘best organisation website’ and ‘best digital content’ (for our milk journey film). 42 finalists were invited out of the hundreds of entries across 7 categories to St John The Baptist Cathedral and… we received nods in both categories! Thank you to everyone who voted. Our website was ‘highly commended’ and the judges praised ‘strong branding, good calls to action; it is frequently updated with easy to access information.’ HUGE well done to Rachel and Peter for their work on this We then won the overall award for the digital content! The judges said it was a really simple well executed idea and so BIG thanks to the team at Alive, in the warehouse, Jon H, Brigit, Freddie, Issac, of course Tile Media and many others (too many to name, the music is already playing) but this was most definitely a team effort – well done and thank you everyone.
We then won the overall award for the digital content! The judges said it was a really simple well executed idea and so BIG thanks to the team at Alive, in the warehouse, Jon H, Brigit, Freddie, Issac, of course Tile Media and many others (too many to name, the music is already playing) but this was most definitely a team effort – well done and thank you everyone.I hope your Friday is a really good one, wherever you are and whatever you’re up to and thank you as always for the part you play in making Norwich Foodbank an award winning charity 
Hannah