Chipping Barnet foodbank opened on the 10th November last year. Situated in the Salvation Army premises in Albert Road, New Barnet, they have fed more than 136 people (including children) in the area since opening.
The foodbank is part of the Trussell Trust, an organisation that pioneered foodbanks in this country. The Trust has provided resources to facilitate the set up and operation of the local foodbank.
Chipping Barnet foodbank has been inundated with donations of food - more than 1,500 kg so far - and has had to find additional storage space away from the Salvation Army, expanding into a garage owned by the church of Mary Immaculate and St. Peter in New Barnet. Donations have been provided by individuals, churches and schools. Two food collection have also taken place at the Whetstone branch of Waitrose.
Donated food must be non-perishable (tins or packets) and have a long ‘sell by’ date on it. The foodbank is not allowed to hand out food that is out of date (nowadays even tins have ‘sell by’ dates on them). Every item is checked when it comes into the foodbank and food that has the nearest ‘sell by’ date to the current day is put into the parcels first (ie. food that has a date of April 2013 will be given out before items that have a date of July 2013). This is to ensure the health of recipients as well as provide some stock items for them.
The foodbank is currently open from 10 am – 12 noon on Saturdays and 12 noon - 2pm on Tuesdays. When a client comes into the foodbank, they can sit down and have a cup of coffee or tea and a chat with a volunteer while their parcel is being made up. We can also provide leaflets and information about charities and organisations that may be able to give help and guidance to people in difficult circumstances.
Clients must present a voucher for a parcel that has been issued by a professional (eg: social worker, doctor, community worker) who knows them and is familiar with their family circumstances. Volunteers at the foodbank are not trained as counsellors or advisers, able to make judgements about individual circumstances and needs. Vouchers have been issued to 50 different local agencies so far, including the Children, Young People and Family Network, the Jobcentre, Barnet Homes, as well as various churches and doctor’s surgeries. The vouchers are numbered and must be signed by the professional to be valid. A record of signatories is kept in the foodbank for referral and vouchers are checked before food parcels are made up. This system allows the ensure that the foodbank helps people in genuine need.
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