At the start of the new year, in common with many other organisations, we take stock of where we are and look at where we are going.
The massive increase in demand we experienced in 2020 gave us the opportunity to streamline and improve our core purpose of supplying free food to those in need. New systems and methods of working were developed and volunteer teams expanded and duplicated to enhance resilience against Covid-19.
At the start of 2021, as the Rye branch of Bexhill Food Bank, we set out a simple plan to be able to improve the service we deliver. This included reviewing and streamlining our sources of food supply, overhauling stock control and we worked towards a system that is tightly managed, with improved food stockholding while allowing flexibility to respond to client demand and supply difficulties.
We recognised the advantages to our community and client base to become an independent Trussell Trust Food Bank. This was achieved in November 2021 and we became Rye Foodbank.
During 2021, having established secure capability to meet local needs for food, we identified the key reasons people come to the foodbank and what we need to do to address these reasons. We began delivering services aimed at eliminating the causes of food poverty.
We appreciate that in a community as geographically diverse as Rye there are many practical obstacles preventing clients contacting and physically visiting advisors and agencies to address sometimes complex issues. In recognition of this we have set up virtual meeting facilities in the Foodbank premises. Support services are now available on demand and include a benefits advisor, housing advice, family support services and an energy advisor.
Our core mission and purpose is and will remain to feed those who need food. We also aim to help alleviate food poverty by working with other agencies to help lift people out of food poverty longer term. We are developing our plans as to how to achieve this aim and intend to develop our partnerships with local agencies with a view to reducing, even eliminating, the causes of food poverty.
For the present and while the pandemic remains an inhibitor, we are restricted in what we can do and the speed of progress is affected. When the pandemic is over we will extend our support service in order to fulfil our aim, which is to provide a first-class service to people in crisis, and then to lift them out of crisis as fast as possible. We have had some success so far but there is still much to do.
Thank you and happy new year to all our benefactors and supporters. Please continue to help us in our work during 2022.
We are open every Wednesday at the Baptist church hall, Cinque Ports Street from 1pm until 3pm. All are welcome and you don’t need a referral or voucher.
You can email ryefoodbank@gmail.com. Phone us on 07526 349847.
Monetary donations can be sent to Rye Foodbank at Barclays Bank, sort code 20-54-25, account number 83501116, through the Jempson Foundation or cheques to Rye Foodbank, c/o 24 North Salts, Rye. If you donate via the Jempson Foundation and are a taxpayer, gift aid can be applied, thereby increasing the value of the donation by 25% at no cost to the donor. If you make a bank transfer, please do send us a message (via ryefoodbank@gmail.com) so we know who it is from and can send a receipt, if required.
Image Credits: Rye Foodbank .