168 Meals For Tameside South Food Bank!

This month has seen our Glossop branch visit Tameside South & Longdendale Food Bank! Located at Hattersley Baptist Church, the team got to meet the volunteers there, have a chat, and see how their operation runs.

“It was really good to see what they do in person, it gives you a better idea of the impact they are having and really makes you think a bit more about the people we have helped. It makes you feel good doing something like that” – Site manager, Apex Glossop.

We had £136 to spend this time around, the team filled their trolley and headed to the food bank where everything weighed in at 67 kg! The volunteers worked out that it would be able to provide 168 meals for the people of Tameside.

Generally, food banks & community kitchens see a drop in donations over the summer months (the sector as a whole is experiencing immense donation fatigue due to the pandemic) as there is a misconception that food banks are only used by homeless people who may not need as much support during the warmer months. Unfortunately, food banks are a lifeline for a wide variety of people.

According to The Trussell Trust, the main drivers of foodbank use are to do with lack of income. Issues with the benefits system as well as challenging life experiences & ill-health mean some people have to choose between keeping a roof over their heads or stocking up their cupboards.

All of this contributes to the 2.5 million emergency food parcels being distributed between April 2020 – March 2021. This figure is up 128% compared to 5 years ago. With 980,000 of these food parcels going to children, it is evident that there is an even higher demand for food banks in the summer months when they are not being fed at school.

Graph taken from The Trussell Trust – End of Year Statistics Report (2021)

We spoke to Gemma Foxcroft, Co-Director at Cracking Good Food, to gain some insight into how they are coping at the moment. She told us that over the past year, they have been supporting people who never imagined they would need it. Increasing unemployment rates have contributed, however, a large portion of people who have been on furlough for extended periods are also struggling.

Low-earners make up the highest proportion of people on furlough – “A lot of people were managing to make ends meet with 100% of their wage but taking 20% of those earnings away has tipped them over the edge and they now can’t afford to feed themselves sufficiently.” Paired with the lifting of the eviction ban on June 1st, it is expected that there will be an even more noticeable fall in living conditions.

Cracking Good Food is a not-for-profit social enterprise, aiming to support people to cook more affordable, seasonal & nutritious food from scratch whilst reducing food waste, take a look at their 2020-2021 impact report here.

Apex Self Storage continues to assist local people through food bank donations and supporting the work of Cracking Good Food – working to end food poverty in Greater Manchester.