Trussell Trust Newslink Winter / Spring 2015

Newslink

Winter / Spring 2015

“Without the foodbank, I don’t think I would be here today.”

Read Richard’s story on page 6

“Our job is not just to feed people, but to make them feel there is hope.”

This quote from one of our foodbank managers sums up what we are all about. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for your fantastic support and generosity in 2014.

As you may know, with your help we gave emergency food to over 900,000 people in 2013/2014.

This year looks like a similar picture. Of the 492,641 people helped between April and September 2014, 175,565 were children, a truly shocking statistic.

As well as opening more foodbanks, we will be working with them to deliver More Than Food. This means that whilst continuing to stop people going hungry, we are aiming to help them break out of crisis long term.

We’re currently piloting a scheme in conjunction with Martin Lewis, Money Saving Expert, hosting debt advice services in foodbanks to help people at the point of crisis.

“You walk to the cupboard 50 times a day and there’s nothing there and it doesn’t change.” - Mike

To support our work, we’ve opened more shops, bringing social enterprise and new volunteering opportunities to even more communities.

The UK economy is recovering, but for many making ends meet is still tough.

5 million people in the UK are earning less than a living wage and are often in jobs offering little security with poor terms and conditions. For the first time ever the majority of those living in poverty are in employment.

The statistics continue to shock us, but with your continued support and effort we can assist those most at need to build the foundations for a better future.

David McAuley - Chief Executive

Mike, 35, from London turned to foodbanks after facing redundancy and then as a consequence, marriage breakdown. He told his story on LBC Radio just before Christmas, reminding us of the volatility of life.

Contents

Number of people given three days’ emergency food

Richard’s Story

8 Social Enterprise

Top six primary referral causes in April-September 2014 to Trussell Trust foodbanks

12 More Than Food Programme

6

10 Babs’ Story

13 Eat Well Spend Less

14

The Barons’ Charter

18

19

Volunteer Profile Supporter Profile Peter Raz - Rotarian

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Winter / Spring 2015

News Summer of Festivals The Larmer Tree festival in Wiltshire chose The Trussell Trust as their charity partner in July 2014. It was a great chance for us to raise awareness of UK food poverty as well as showcasing some of our fantastic social enterprise activities.

Poverty and social exclusion in the UK

Poverty Study The largest UK study on poverty was undertaken

by Bristol University last summer ‘Poverty and Social Exclusion in the UK’. Headline news from the study showed that 4 million children and adults in the UK aren’t eating properly and the number of households living below the minimum standard of living has increased from 14-33%.

Read the full report here - bit.ly/PSEinUK Emergency Use Only Report The first ever in-depth study into food poverty was released in November based on personal experiences of foodbank clients, put together

by The Trussell Trust, Child Poverty Action Group, Church of England and Oxfam.

Read the full report here - bit.ly/16M4MJw Tesco Collection Thanks to Tesco and our volunteers for their continued support in the bi-annual national food collection. Between July and December more than 6 million meals were collected via neighbourhood collections, with Tesco topping up every food donation by 30% which is all passed back to foodbanks. www.trusselltrust.org/tesco-collection

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Winter / Spring 2015 PG tips Monkey

Amazing support was shown by PG tips’ Monkey last September as he helped generate over £10,000 for foodbanks and raise awareness of #CuppaAndAChat.

Breakfast Clubs 3.5 million children live in poverty in the UK. Kellogg’s released a report in the summer which suggests that 1 in 8 pupils don’t eat enough in the school holidays. Kellogg’s supported a trial of breakfast clubs in foodbanks this summer, the results of which will be monitored by Northumberland University with a view to rolling out next year.

More Than Food With 1 in 10 people in the UK having taken out a payday loan to help make ends meet, we’d like to say huge thanks to Martin Lewis, Money Saving Expert, for financing a pilot scheme in six foodbanks. This will see debt and money management charities partner with foodbanks to help people at their point of crisis.

Feeding Britain Report Published December’s landmark report compiled by the APPG (All Party Parliamentary Group) on food poverty and hunger, went beyond anything done before to tackle these issues in the UK. Recommendations included a national ‘Feeding Britain’ network (a publicly funded body to tackle hunger amongst the poor, to include food waste reduction); higher Minimum Wage and a fairer, more reliable benefits system.

Read the full report here: www.foodpovertyinquiry.org

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Richard’s Story

"Without the foodbank, I don't think I would be here today" Richard, 49, from New Milton, was referred to a foodbank last year following a deterioration in his health and domestic life.

He had always considered himself fit and healthy, having worked in the police force for six years, followed by 12 years in the Royal Military Police Force, before moving into sales. Things took a turn for the worse

though in 2008, when a chest infection quickly developed into a heart condition.

Richard said: “I collapsed and was rushed into hospital to find the left side of my heart had increased by three times the size”. Since then he’s suffered from two strokes as well as 19 mini strokes, leaving him unable to work and with disability on the left side of his body.

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Richard saw his situation decline even further when he separated from his wife in August 2014 and he moved out of their family home.

Richard said: “When I first went, I felt very embarrassed because having been brought up in a forces background; I’ve always looked after myself".

Richard explains: “The housing department put me in homeless accommodation, which was a shared bed and breakfast. However because I had changed address, my Employment Support Allowance (ESA), Disabled Living Allowance (DLA) and Motability Allowance was held up for a couple of weeks”.

In spite of that, the people at the foodbank put him at ease straight away: “The volunteers were fantastic, offering a chat and a shoulder to cry on. I suffer from depression as well and without the foodbank I don’t think I would be here today”.

Richard looks forward to his 10-year-old daughter visiting him every weekend, although he admits he’s skipped meals on a few occasions so she can eat. He said: “I shouldn’t have to do it but I’d rather she gets the nourishment and I go without. It does get hard, but it’s something you have to do to survive”.

Due to his serious health difficulties, Richard must take 35 tablets a day.

Unfortunately the cost of travelling to collect these prescriptions left him without enough money for food and his local Citizens Advice Bureau referred him to his nearest foodbank.

"I've worked all my life and never thought I'd be in a situation where I'd need a foodbank.

Richard continues: “It’s a really bad situation that people have to decide whether they can feed themselves, feed their children or put the heating on.”

At the moment things are still tough for Richard. He’s on the waiting list for a heart transplant and will be on medication for the rest of his life, but he’s grateful that the foodbank is available if he ever needs some extra help.

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Winter Winter//Spring Spring 2015

Social enterprise Our portfolio of social enterprise activities not only create jobs and opportunities for many people, it re-cycles household objects preventing landfill whilst providing low cost essential items and raising money to support the work of The Trussell Trust.

making advent calendars Our range of activities includes upcycling projects which create great opportunities for people and some wonderful items for us to sell. For example, we turn donated textiles into bunting, make tea cup candle gifts from discarded bone china tea cups and old candles, use donated plates to make cake stands and coat racks from old cutlery and wooden furniture offcuts.

10 Shops

two of which are dedicated furniture shops

furniture restoration In addition, our network of charity shops includes two dedicated furniture shops (in Salisbury and Ferndown) selling second hand furniture carefully restored by a team of skilled staff and volunteers. We also run beading classes to create jewellery from donated goods and in the spring we sell plants and cuttings from our garden in decorated pots.

250 meaningful conversations with customers every week

550 regular volunteers

including 110 supported volunteers helping with the day to day activities

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New initiatives coming up in 2015 • The start of a ‘white goods’ electrical refurbishment project backed by the local council and recycling centre, to provide cookers, fridges and washing machines at low cost.

Have you checked our online stores on Ebay or Amazon?

You’ll find some incredible bargains.

To find our online shops please follow these links:

bit.ly/tt-amazon

• A bicycle repair and maintenance project to provide affordable transport for people who otherwise wouldn’t be able to get to jobs and interviews.

• Household paint is the most toxic item that can go into landfill. Community Re-paint will cover the South Wiltshire area, recycling unwanted paint supplies, re-potting and selling on at low cost.

33,000 hours of volunteer input

bit.ly/tt-ebay

Volunteer for us

Could you offer a few hours of your time each week?

You can volunteer in our shops, our warehouse or in your local foodbank. www.trusselltrust.org/volunteer

4,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions reduction as result of our recycling efforts

2,500 electrical items recycled

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Winter Winter//Spring Spring 2015

Babs’ Story

“My life fell apart and ended with me having to get help from a foodbank”

Last year Babs, 56, from Exeter was advised to stop working after suffering a mental breakdown.

Although diagnosed with bipolar disorder 40 years ago, she had always managed to work, while raising her two sons alone.

Babs explains: “I had worked all my life until my health deteriorated and I got

to the point where I couldn’t work at all.

This is the longest I’ve been unemployed.

It’s been 8 months and I still want to go back to work”.

The ex-army nurse had never claimed benefits until she was forced to stop working.

Unfortunately the wait for her Employment Support Allowance (ESA)

Winter / Spring 2015 was longer than anticipated and when all remaining money went towards paying the bills she was referred to a foodbank.

“I never expected to be in the position where I had to go myself.”

Babs never imagined to find herself in this situation: “I’ve given to foodbanks when I was working. I didn’t think twice about putting something at the end of an aisle in a foodbank container, so I never expected to be in the position where I had to go myself. But my life fell apart and ended with me having to get help from a foodbank”.

While Babs admits she initially felt ashamed having to use the foodbank, it

If you’d like to help change the lives of people like Babs and Richard use the form at the back of the booklet

Newslink 11 was a relief for her to finally come home with some food: “I want to support myself how I always have done. I felt like people would think that I was useless, but in the last year, I had to decide between heating and eating. I never thought I would be in that position”.

However, she said the support she received was unbelievable: “The volunteers were incredible, nonjudgemental and caring. I had a cup of tea and went away feeling much better than I did when I walked in”.

Babs is currently focusing on improving her health and is very grateful for the support she received: “Without the foodbank my health wouldn’t be getting better, as the one thing I wasn’t doing was feeding myself, so it’s part of a great big jigsaw of my recovery”.

DONATE

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Winter / Spring 2015

More than Food

An exciting new development for foodbanks and beyond More Than Food is our vision for the development of foodbanks into community hubs‌ places that can offer more holistic support to clients in safe, modern and accessible spaces, where people can be encouraged to tell their stories and receive guidance and support on site.

7.29% of clients state debt as their main reason for using foodbanks. Many more clients have debt as a secondary cause.

In addition to providing emergency

food, the volunteers at foodbanks offer a listening ear whilst also signposting clients to local support to help address the underlying causes of their problems.

When debt is noted as a contributory or main cause of their current problems, clients are signposted to specific debt advice and help with managing their money.

Our experience tells us that hosting debt advice services within a foodbank centre

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Winter / Spring 2015 helps clients deal with their issue at the point of crisis, rather than sending them to other locations for help.

We are currently running a six month pilot study whereby debt and budgeting advice will be available in foodbank centres in six locations.

We will be partnering with specialist debt advice and budgeting advisors

such as Community Money Advice, Christians Against Poverty, Citizens Advice Bureau, Stepchange, Turn 2 Us, and the Money Advice Trust as well as more local providers in order to have debt advisors available at foodbank centre sessions.

In Autumn 2015, we will start the roll out of this service through other Network Member Foodbanks.

Eat Well Spend Less Bringing cookery skills to life in foodbanks As part of the More Than Food vision, we are hoping to offer basic cookery classes in some of our foodbanks. A successful trial in the Salisbury area (jointly funded by Wiltshire Council) invited clients to sign up for six classes.

Each session focused on learning to cook one savoury and one sweet recipe and

also included topics such as food hygiene, budgeting and menu planning. In addition extra life skills classes are being trialled such as Preparing for Parenthood and Money Matters.

Your donations will help such projects to continue to grow and help educate more families in the UK.

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Celebrating history through art this summer in Salisbury 2015 is the 800th anniversary of the sealing of Magna Carta, the most celebrated document in history.

To mark the occasion we are proud to be hosting the biggest ever mass participation public art event held in the city together with Wild in Art. Salisbury (recently voted by Lonely Planet as one of the top 10 cities to visit in the world) is home to the best preserved original copy of Magna Carta.

Created in 1215 by the bold Barons of medieval England the Charter was an attempt to limit the greed and power of King John.

Salisbury will host a display of over thirty life size 3D Barons across the city in the summer of 2015 for 12 weeks.

Each Baron will be uniquely decorated by an artist, to form a colourful sculptural trail.

At the end of summer the Barons will all be displayed at Salisbury Cathedral for a week, before they are auctioned on 1st October to raise money for The Trussell Trust.

PANTONE 5 1 1 5 U C:75 M:100 Y:70 K:15 RG B : 9 2 , 4 1 , 7 0 PANTONE 3 8 9 U C : 2 0 M : 0 Y : 8 5 K :0 RG B : 2 1 3 , 2 2 4 , 7 7 C : 7 M : 9 Y : 2 4 K :0 RG B : 2 3 6 , 2 2 4 , 1 9 6

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Winter / Spring 2015

Get involved

Ways you can get involved in this unique and exciting event

Businesses

Schools and Colleges

Raise your brand awareness

Paint a mini Baron (90cm tall)

Could your business or place of work be an official sponsor of a Baron? In return your logo will be displayed on the plinth for the whole 12 weeks.

Schools, from primary through to secondary are also joining in with the Barons’ project by buying their own mini Baron (90 cm high) to decorate.

As well as being able to consult on the unique design of your Baron, your business will be part of the event’s marketing materials and website including the trail map, as well as being invited to special Barons’ Charter events.

Together with the Education Pack it’s a great way to teach and engage pupils about this piece of history, whilst helping raise funds for those living in poverty in the UK.

If your business, school or college would like to get involved visit www.thebaronscharter.org.uk or email jenny.marshall@trusselltrust.org

Join the Magna Carta 800 celebrations and come to Salisbury and see the Barons’ Trail this summer.

Keep up to date with the Barons by visiting the website or following Barons’ Charter on Facebook and Twitter.

baronscharter

www.thebaronscharter.org.uk

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Events and fundraising ideas UK and Overseas Treks and adventures with Discover Adventure

Have you thought about doing something amazing? We’ve got together with Discover Adventure to bring you the chance to really make a difference and change lives.

Cycle, run or climb, you’ll see new sights, achieve new things and make a huge difference to families going hungry. Find your next adventure at www.trusselltrust.org/challenges

Tea for Trussell Wouldn’t it be great if drinking tea with your friends helped people in crisis?

By getting your friends together and holding a ‘Tea for Trussell’ party, or hosting one at work, you can do just that.

Order one of our Twinings tea packs, hold a tea party and ask friends to donate to help more people like Babs. (see page 10) From Peppermint & Nettle to Mango & Lychee, it won’t be your usual tea party.

Your friends and colleagues can try a range of fruit and herbal teas generously provided by Twinings.

To request your Tea for Trussell pack e-mail mark.elling@trusselltrust.org or call 01722 580 177. Postage costs £5 or collect directly from the Salisbury office.

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Wing Walking Fancy an extreme challenge? We’re holding a wing walking day on 31st May 2015. If you’d like to see the beautiful Dorset countryside, strapped to a biplane then this is for you! This is free to do if you raise £950+

London 10K Whether you’re a novice or seasoned runner why not join us on Sunday 12th July 2015 and take part in the world’s most prestigious 10K run. This closed road event is a great way to see the sites of London and a chance to help people living in poverty. If you raise over £350 we’ll refund the £50 entry fee. Or why not team up with a friend for a joint target of £500, or four runners for a target of £950.

Parachute Jump Sky Dive On Friday 17th April 2015, The Trussell Trust will be holding a day of tandem parachute jumping over the historic landscape of Old Sarum, just outside Salisbury. Feel the exhilaration as you fly through the clouds at 10,000 feet with an experienced skydiver for only £500. If you achieve or exceed this target we’ll pay your jump fee!

To find out more and to sign up please contact Mark Elling on 01722 580 177 or email mark.elling@trusselltrust.org. Thank you!

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Volunteer Profile Peter - Volunteer Furniture Restorer - Salisbury

"I find it rewarding in many ways; good company, plenty of laughs, and the chance to help those in society who are in genuine and desperate need. The hours I volunteer are ideal and I still have plenty of time to enjoy my retirement in other ways."

Peter originally trained in stage management at RADA. A colourful career followed, brushing shoulders with Ingrid Bergman whilst working in theatre and then on to the BBC in Studio Management working on shows such as the news.

A lifestyle change led him to run a market garden and from there he went on to train in furniture restoration, a highly skilled profession.

Peter has been volunteering one day a week for The Trussell Trust for over a year. His amazing skills are utilised in the warehouse where donated furniture is restored and given a new lease of life ready to be sold in our furniture shops.

He explained: “My sister has worked for many years at The Trussell Trust as a volunteer and was my inspiration for putting my skills as a retired furniture restorer to good use in The Trust’s furniture workshop.”

Peter enjoys being at The Trust where time can be devoted to spend on restoration that wouldn’t be available in a regular business environment.

Our furniture shops can be found in Salisbury or Ferndown. If you’d like to donate unwanted furniture please contact the shops directly.

Salisbury: 1 Stephenson Road, Salisbury SP2 7NP, Tel 01722 580 196 Mon-Sat: 9.30am - 5.00pm Ferndown: Unit D, 25 Penny’s Walk, Ferndown BH22 9TH, Tel: 01202 855 037 Mon-Sat: 9.30am - 5.00pm

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Supporter Profile Raz - Rotarian

“We were overwhelmed by the volume of food donated by the public and were happy to support The Trussell Trust” The Trussell Trust, just like Rotary is at the heart of many communites. Rotary members are community champions, striving to improve lives and bring about positive change in their neighbourhoods.

Rotarian Raz Zoers, President of the Rotary Club of Epping rallied his fellow Rotarians, friends and family to help run the Tesco Neighbourhood Food Collections for The Trussell Trust in the Tesco Superstore in Epping in July and November 2014.

His enthusiasm and organisational skills meant Rotary Clubs across two Districts collaborated in the collections. Led by Raz, the Epping club was supported by members from the Rotary Clubs of London, Leytonstone & Woodford, LoughtonBuckhurst Hill & Chigwell, Roding, Epping Forest, Redbridge, St Marylebone and Chingford.

Together they collected 2.7 tonnes of donated food, enough to ensure 271 people could receive a 3-day pack of emergency food.

RIBI Vice President Elect, Eve Conway said

“Raz, fantastic - well done to you! There are some great developments coming out of this for Epping Rotary Club’s link with Tesco locally in the future! Great to see Rotary Clubs in the area and beyond coming together for this!”

Service Above Self all round!

A huge thank you to Raz and all Rotary members for supporting The Trussell Trust – together we can change lives and truly show that ‘We’re for Communities’.

Contact us Unit 9, Ashfield Trading Estate, Ashfield Road, Salisbury SP2 7HL

twitter.com/trusselltrust

enquiries@trusselltrust.org

facebook.com/trusselltrust

01722 580 180

www.trusselltrust.org The Trussell Trust is a charity founded on Christian principles that partners with local communities to combat poverty in the UK. Registered Charity in England & Wales (1110522) and Scotland (SC044246).

Registered Limited Company in England & Wales (5434524)