Emergency: 07749 322 291
Email: help@exmouthfoodbank.org.uk
It will be Mother’s Day on Sunday 19 March. We will be putting a small gift in the parcels for all of the families with mums during the week beginning Monday 13 March.
Preparations for Easter are also underway. Each year we like to supplement our food parcels with Easter eggs to bring some extra joy to families with children. If you would like to donate Easter eggs, they can either be brought to the Food Bank between 9.00 a.m. and 3.30 p.m. on a Tuesday or Friday or placed in any of our drop boxes. Ideally donations need to be with us by Tuesday 28 March as we will start distributing them in parcels that week. Thank you!
February mirrored the pattern of demand that we experienced in January, although there has been a slight increase in the number of families coming to us for the first time. On average we are continuing to distribute 300 parcels per month to feed over 650 people - which means that our volunteers are busily packing 20% more parcels than they did this time last year!
Contingency plans are in place should numbers surge post April 2023, but for now, thanks to the huge support provided by volunteers and donors, the Food Bank is holding firm.
As a team we work hard to ensure that people accessing the Food Bank are signposted to agencies that will help them to address the underlying issues that have led them to needing our services.
On a Friday afternoon clients have face to face access to a Citizens Advice Advisor. This has proved invaluable in addressing a range of financial queries in a clear and timely manner. This month, beginning on Tuesday 14 March, we are pleased to announce that on alternate Tuesday afternoons clients will also be able to talk to an officer from East Devon District Council’s Financial Resilience Team.
On Tuesday 7 March we were delighted to host a ‘cost of living’ pop-up clinic provided by Seachange, who provided advice about grants and tips for saving energy.
It’s great to see how our clients are benefiting from such effective partnership working.
We now have emergency out of hours parcels located in 21 venues in and around Exmouth including schools, churches, medical centres and our referring agencies. The parcels are given to people who urgently need food when the Food Bank is closed. Parcels are replenished by Food Bank volunteers as soon as they have been used.
If you are interested in finding out more about this scheme please email: info@exmouthfoodbank.org.uk or telephone: 07749 322291
