Hereford food bank vows to continue despite setback

A foodbank has reassured clients it “will still keep going” despite news it has to leave its base in Hereford.

FoodShare, at St Martin’s Hereford, was told it would have to close the service with immediate effect, last Friday.

The organisation had been based at St Martin’s Church, Hereford since 2019, but for financial, staffing and practical reasons it has seen the need to move location, and has pledged to be in a position to open later.

Cat Hornsey, co-ordinator at the charity, said: “FoodShare will not finish. We have a dedicated team of volunteers behind the scenes and we work with some amazing people.”

She added: “It will still keep going, we just need a little bit of help to keep the momentum going.”

Ms Horney also advised clients to stay tuned on social media for updates, but she said the plan was to continue from a new location, just two days after the move

In a statement, the charity said it was “unable to sustain the service [where it is] due to a lack of long-term funding”.

Financial support is needed to maintain food storage facilities, including refrigerators and freezers, run a collection van with chiller facilities and maintain the operating licences for food transportation.

The charity also said it had become a “burden” to fill the position of co-ordinator, which has been vacant since the spring.

It said this was “proving difficult to fill”, particularly after the vicar left in September, with recruitment for their replacement yet to begin.

Churchwarden Gillian said: “We are devastated and have found this a very difficult decision to make.

“We are grateful for the support offered to us by the team at Hereford Diocese, who have been working to seek an alternative solution.

“As yet we have been unable to find fresh funding, new premises or a leader to coordinate our operations.

“We know that every person who comes to our FoodShare appreciates this service. We did not make this decision lightly.”

A Hereford Diocese spokesperson added: “We would like to reassure the community that the Diocese has every intention of enabling the FoodShare to continue and we recognise the distress that has been caused by this pause in the FoodShare service.

“The Diocese has been working behind the scenes for the last 10 days since we heard about the potential closure, to try to put an interim solution in place and we are hopeful we will be able to keep the FoodShare going longer term.”