This article was supplied by Chris Parsons, current Chairperson of the Crediton Foodbank.
Crediton Foodbank has been based in The Manse at Crediton Congregational Church ever since it started in 2011. It was then part of the church community outreach.
My involvement with the foodbank began in Feb 2017 when I became part of the leadership team at CCC with responsibility for ‘serving the community’. I was, at that time, working as the Centre Lead at Okehampton & Hatherleigh Children’s Centre, managing a team of workers who supported families with children under five in every aspect of their lives; money problems, parenting skills, child development groups, domestic abuse, child protection and more. My role there was coming to an end, and I was keen to put my experience to use supporting people who attended the FB, so we were not just handing out food parcels but also offering them support to help them get out of poverty. I had seen the benefit of having support in all kinds of life situations, especially during times of poor mental health and anxiety, when anything can seem overwhelming, and you just need someone to come alongside and be a facilitator. With everything becoming more internet-based, this also became a challenge for many people who had difficulties accessing the support they needed or for those who didn’t know that there was support out there.
Therefore, with James Gregory, the pastor’s support, I put together a proposal and sought funding for three years of employment to work with the FB clients. This was successful and I was employed for 12 hours a week as a support worker, whilst continuing the coordinator’s role on a voluntary basis. We were able to help many people with a vast range of issues and many links within the local community were forged as people were signposted or referred to them.
However, as the need for a Foodbank in the area grew, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, we could see that the FB needed to expand and become more established and not just come under the church. We had many volunteers by that time some of whom had no Christian connection at all and policies and procedures needed to be written to make it more robust. Therefore, a steering group was established to put together an application to the Charity Commission and the Foodbank became a registered charity in July 2021. My support role came to an end in the June of that year. FB is now managed by a board of trustees and employs staff as well as being supported by volunteers from the local community.
However – yes another ‘however’ – once we had employed a new coordinator/support worker, it became very apparent that the hours we had allocated for this role were taken up completely by running the FB itself and there was no time left to offer the level of support we wanted to. This is when the idea for the Springboard Project was formed. As trustees, we sought funding from charities and local businesses and also commenced on a partnership with CHAT (Churches Housing Action Team). They were already working from the Manse once a week, offering Debt and Money Advice, and elsewhere offering Tenancy and Housing Support, and it seemed a logical step to work with them, especially as they are so well recognised for their work across Mid Devon. Our Springboard Support Advisor offers a wider range of support than the CHAT advisors and this enables them to help people in all sorts of situations, other than debt or housing. The project is now in its second year and we shall be looking for more funding so that it can continue. We have expanded to run
- a cafe once a week to build relationships and identify needs,
- found funding for 100 slow cookers to offer clients
- offer a cheap one-pot recipe each week plus ingredients
- give out food hampers at Christmas
Some Startling Numbers:
- In 2012 we gave out 108 parcels to 138 adults and 135 children
- When I started in 2017 we gave out 288 parcels to 426 adults and 185 children, but by August 2019 we had doubled that number.
- In 2023 we gave out 2098 parcels to 220 different households feeding the equivalent of 5,000 people.
It is very sad to see how the downturn in the country’s economy has affected so many people’s lives and to hear their stories. We will continue to do all we can, with other agencies, to support them out of poverty into better financially viable circumstances.