Once again Swindon Foodbank has been blessed with a plentiful harvest. Through various church, school and community collections we've received 15.4 tonnes of Harvest food - an amazing 65% increase on last year! 

In addition we received 1.248 tonnes of food at the recent supermarket collection. We'd like to thank everyone who gave their time to help on the day, including some enthusiastic scouts - your help meant a smoothly run, successful day! 

All in all this means that the Warehouse is very full at the moment, with lots of food needing to be sorted and stacked. If you are available during any day, Monday to Friday between the 12th and 30th November, and could give us an hour or two we would be very pleased to have your help.  

You would need to book in your offer of help at the Foodbank Office on 01793 978045 (between 10 & 4 Monday to Friday) or by email to office@swindonfoodbank.co.uk.

Our next supermarket collection is on 1 December at Sainsburys Bridgemead. If you can give an hour or two anytime between 9 and 5 If you can help please contact Sandra on 01793 978045 (Monday to Friday 10 – 4) or mobile 07962812442 or by email to office@swindonfoodbank.co.uk

The need for feeding the hungry continues to grow - and so does the support which Swindon Foodbank receives. And, as the advertising campaign tells us - every little bit of support does help! 

In a recent press release it was reported that the charity Kids Company has seen a 293% increase in number of children going to school hungry. Whilst we have not seen such a dramatic rise in Swindon we have seen an increase in the number of families coming through our doors. So whilst the economic climate may no longer be the headline story the issue has far from gone away. So again I thank all our friends and supporters for another month of being there for the people of Swindon.

Here are just some of the ways we were helped in the last month.

College Clean Up

New College student Mark Foster recently organised for him and a group of fellow students to run a car wash service. As well as inviting Lee to give a brief talk to his class on the work of Swindon Foodbank, he organised, with help from his tutor, all the practicalities of the day, such as water etc. Sacrificing their time, the group raised an impressive £40.00. Thanks Mark and all the team - well done! 

Mark Foster, New College car wash organiser

It all Adds Up! 

Who said accountants just sit down all day?! This month we had a team of volunteers from MorrisOwen get stuck in to categorising and storing donated food after our recent supermarket collection. Ellie Groves and the team spent a day at the Warehouse sorting cans and packets, and packing foodboxes. And, as we know that a bit of fun makes work go faster - they even had time to have a speed packing competition! 

Support from employee volunteer schemes is fantastic for Swindon Foodbank, giving us the opportunity to spread our message in a big way, as well as develop greater links with the community. If your office would like to spend an afternoon or evening helping at the Warehouse - do get in touch! 

The team from MorrisOwen compete in a speed packing competition...

Sainsburys Big Shop

Our most recent supermarket collection was at Sainsburys Bridgemead, and what a great day it was. We collected a grand total of 1.5tonnes! The generosity of the Sainsburys shoppers was such that our first van load was sent back to the Warehouse by 11.45am! 

These supermarket collections only happen through the time given to us by our volunteers, such as Rosemarie and her grandson Harry. Our Greeters on the front door did a great job letting shoppers know what we needed by handing out Swindon Foodbank shopping lists, while the Warehouse Team did a fantastic job behind the scenes processing all the food as it came in. The day is really a team effort and everyone pulled together - thank you! 

It's a family affair: Rosemarie Schofield and grandson Harry manning the doors at Sainburys

Swindon Foodbank has been incredibly blessed by volunteers in the final months of 2012, helping with the sorting and storing of tonnes of food donated over harvest. But they  need to ask for more volunteers to help in January with the annual stock check. 

The harvest donations were so abundant this year that at times they were running out of boxes for storing it all. But with the help of many teams of volunteers all the food was sorted and stacked ready for redistribution in foodboxes. In fact they had so many offers of help, from church groups and teams of co-workers, that they have had to start turning down further help until the New Year!

Now though they are making plans for their annual stock check on January 3rd. "It's a very physical day," said Richard Belsham, Project Manager, "so we aim to get enough people to be able to swap teams every half hour or so, so that no one is doing too much lifting." The day involves taking every box of food off the shelves, weighing it, and putting it back. 

Swindon Foodbank are asking for anyone who is able to give time on January 3rd between 9.30am and 5pm to get in contact. They can phone - 07932108732, or email info@swindonfoodbank.co.uk

Over the year we get many people giving of their time and resources in order to help Swindon Foodbank to continue to function. We'd like to give mention and thanks to some of the recent support we have received. 

Our grateful thanks go to:

• Zurich - who have given us a grant which will enable us to extend the hours of our part-time assistant over the coming year
• Lee Avery - for the many extra hours of work given to Restore to get our Ladies' toilets extended to incorporate a disabled-access toilet
• to Cavendish Square Co-op and Intel - who both sent teams for a day of painting at St Johns' Hall, vastly increasing how quickly Restore will be ready to open
• to Nationwide Marketing Department -  who sent three teams to work in the Foodbank Warehouse 
• to the many individuals who have faithfully given their time day after day to help with the painting work at Restore

It truly is your support which keeps Swindon Foodbank running and will enable us to launch the new work ofSwindon Restore in the near future. 

The Swindon Foodbank Warehouse has seen an increasing reduction in the amount of stock its holding over the past few months. To combat this we're looking to arrange extra supermarket collections, but also increase awareness within Swindon that we need food to be donated. 

So far in 2011 Swindon Foodbank is feeding on average 16% more people than in 2010 - on average 67 people per week, compared with an average of 56 people last year. It's great that Foodbank is able to respond to this increased need - but we're aware that more feeding means a need for more stock if we don't want an empty warehouse!

There are several factors which could be responsible for the decline in stock:

* the price of lower income food has risen - for example long life fruit juice has gone up almost 100%, while tinned tomatoes have gone up 50%. These are big increases for people to respond to even within their own shopping, let alone to give away to Foodbank. 

* an increasing number of students are needing our help. Government threats of taking away the EMA grant to study has lead to a lack of enthusiasm or motivation to study among many students. New sanctions mean that the students are frequently having their financial support frozen for anywhere between 2 weeks to 3 months if they don't meet many requirements - this could be for failing to keep an appointment, not attending courses or not paying back crisis loans on time. With no benefits these students often have very little other resources to fall back on. 

* increasingly we are feeding people who are, for the most part, managing to get by on their income, whether from wages or benefits, but when something extra arises such as birthdays or unexpected bills, they don't have any margin in their finances to be able to cover them. It's so easy for these situations to snowball, and before long they have gotten themselves into debt with no idea how to get themselves back out. Food from Foodbank can help them meet the unexpected cost and avoid a financial meltdown. 

If Swindon Foodbank is to continue to meet this growing need within Swindon, then we are going to need more people to be donating food to the Warehouse. We are in the process of trying to organise extra Supermarket Collections in May or June, as our next booked collection is July. We have been trying to get a date from Asda-Walmart, but with little success so far. 

 If you are able to help out at our collections, please keep an eye on the website for dates to be updated. Alternatively, if you're able to donate some food, please take a look at our  current food needs to see the items we have most need for. 

Thank you to all who have so faithfully supported us with your donations, we hope you are encouraged to know that all the food we receive is so quickly being redistributed to those who need it. 

Many wonderful people support Swindon Foodbank by donating food to us. Perhaps you are one of them. If so - thanks!

But have you ever wondered what happens to that tin of beans after you drop it into the collecting trolley at the supermarket? Well - read on...

At the supermarket...

On our supermarket collection days the generous people of Swindon donate an average of 1.5tonnes of food, all selected from the shopping lists that are handed out. These tins, boxes and packets get taken by the Swindon Foodbank van back to the Warehouse.

At the Warehouse our volunteers get to work.

Round 1 - first they sort the food into categories - Pasta, Biscuits, Cereals, Soup, etc.

Round 2 - next the food is sorted by the expiry date of each product. Any foods which are out of date are removed. About 5-10% of donated stock is unfortunately unusable due to being out of date.

Most of the items are boxed up by year. Some items, such as long life milk, are boxed up by month. Boxes of tea bags are opened up and re-bagged into amounts of 40 bags.

Labelled up boxes - such as Biscuits 2012 or Milk Mar-11 are then stacked up on the Storage racking.

Round 3 - Now the foodboxes are assembled. Each foodbox is created to contain food for 3 days either for a single person, a couple, or a family. The food is taken in date order - so that food which is earliest in expiry date is selected first , and is selected from pre-determined lists. For example, a box for a family with two children would contain:

Round 4 - the assembled foodboxes are transported to a Distribution Centre. Currently our main distribution point is The Rainbow Centre in the town centre. Here they await distribution to Clients. Our volunteers typically put together between 30 and 40 Foodboxes per week.

A box of any ‘miscellaneous extras’ is also taken to the Distribution Centre.

Round 5 - when Clients come in with a Foodbank voucher (given to them by one of our Partners) they are given the appropriate food box for their circumstances by yet more volunteers. The food is repacked in plastic shopping bags - that way the Client can leave with their bags of food like any other shopper, and not feel any stigma from receiving the food. Clients are also given a choice of one or two Miscellaneous Extras as well, whether that is cheesy biscuits or babyfood. And at Christmas we also put in some Christmas treats!

While waiting the Clients can sit and have a hot drink and a chat with volunteers ready to offer a listening ear.

Round 6 - the food is taken home and eaten!

All this is possible thanks to our fantastic volunteers, and all their work in the Warehouse and Distribution Centre. Thanks to them, and the food that many people across Swindon donate - on average 51 people are being fed each week who might otherwise be going hungry. 

We are encouraged that several schools have been in touch to say that they would like to donate their Harvest Food to us. If you can put in a good word for us at your local church or school regarding Harvest, we'd be very pleased!

However - the coming of Harvest collections means increased work in the Warehouse. So we're putting out an appeal for extra help - ideally we would love to have teams of 3-10 people come and help us sort food in the Warehouse for a couple of hours during an evening in September or October. If you can help with this please get in touch. Ideally we would like one team per week during these two months.

Get in contact to arrange an evening to come - whether you have a team already or would like to join with others on the night, we're waiting to hear from you!