Emergency: 07749 322 291
Email: help@exmouthfoodbank.org.uk
The community of Exmouth and its surrounding areas have rallied again, not only to top up our core stock of supplies but to ensure that we were able to supply Easter eggs to all of our families with children. Thank you to each fund raiser and egg collector – you did a truly amazing job and we wish you all a very Happy Easter.
Demand for the Food Bank remains consistently high and thanks to our volunteers and supporters we were able to distribute 287 parcels in March that provided food for 608 people.
Lisa O’Shaughnessy is the new Tesco Community Champion who is keen to promote the work of the Food Bank – she’s already popped down twice to see what we do and her enthusiasm is infectious!
Lisa cares passionately about linking with the community of Exmouth to support food distribution and avoid food waste. She makes sure that the Food Bank trolley remains in a prominent position at the front of the Tesco store on Salterton Road. She also alerts us to any special offers or excess stock that we might be interested in.
If you spot Lisa in the store she’d love you to stop and have a chat.
We are delighted to report that we have been working with Littleham Primary School and Learn Devon to provide a five-week ‘Cooking on a Budget’ course for parents of children at the school. The Food Bank provided what the tutor from Learn Devon needed to help ten parents cook a healthy, nutritious meal. They then took the meal home to feed their families each Friday night.
The course fed 42 people a week and has been really well received by the parents involved. They have learnt to cook with new ingredients, such as lentils, and have been enthusiastic about encouraging their children to try new things. One parent said: “I cook from scratch now but I never bothered before.”
The course has proved to be so successful that we hope to be able to support other schools and organisations to run their own versions.
All of our volunteers have been busy completing safeguarding training. As a team we want to ensure that we know how to protect the health, wellbeing and rights of our clients and of each other.
In addition, on the 29 March, 14 volunteers completed a highly informative and interactive first aid course run by the Green Cross. All left full of enthusiasm – but hope that we never have to use what we have been taught!
