Funding shortage forces Didcot food bank to make changes

Dave GilyeatSouth of England

Didcot Foodbank Three volunteers at the food bank show some of the donations. A man with grey hair and a moustache is holding a box of biscuits. A blonde woman with red-rimmed glasses and a woman with brown hair in a Tesco uniform hold a large crate of broccoli between them. More groceries are on the table behind them. — Didcot Emergency Foodbank provides food to people in the local area

Volunteers at a food bank say they are having to make changes to the services they offer because of a reduction in donations.

Didcot Emergency Foodbank was launched in 2009 by volunteers at Didcot Baptist Church but is down to reserves of about £10,000.

Manager Andrew Snell said: “This year to date we will have had £29,000 income in cash, and we will have spent close to £60,000 on food, so there’s a big gap there.”

Previously the food bank provided support to its clients twice a week for six weeks, with a three-month gap before another referral. It is now changing this to once a week for six weeks, followed by a longer six-month gap.

“We’ve gone back to being what we were before covid, which is an emergency food bank, as opposed to helping families on low incomes who are just about coping, or not quite coping,” Mr Snell explained.

The food bank receives about 75% of its donations via cash, and 25% from physical food donations, though five years ago it was the other way around.

“People were giving us the actual food but not so much in the way of money,” Mr Snell said.

“People were so generous in Didcot and the surrounding villages, they gave us more than we would ever need [during covid] and that’s where the reserve came from.”

The food bank was launched in 2009 by volunteers at Didcot Baptist Church

Google A Google Street View of the church, an unassuming one-storey building, except for the cross on the main entrance. — The food bank was launched in 2009 by volunteers at Didcot Baptist Church

The food bank still expects to support about 6,000 clients this year.

Mr Snell said: “It’s been absolutely great to be able to help families who are on the borderline, and obviously we’ll regret not being able to do that in the immediate future.

“We’ll be looking at things as we go along to see if we can relax what we’ve put in place but that’s a little way down the line. It’s a matter of regret.”

He added: “I hope we’ll be able to increase the donations and go back to full-on help for people who are going to get a bit squeezed out at the moment.”

South Oxfordshire District Council’s community hub, Citizens Advice, schools and nurseries, medical practices, health visitors, housing associations and certain charities can officially refer people in need to the food bank.

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