11 August 2023
“We encourage claimants to come in and collect wherever possible so they can sit down and we can help get to the root of the problem and refer them on,” explains Lin Wooldridge from Teignbridge Homeless Action Today (THAT) Food Bank.
The food bank supports people in Buckland and the surrounding community by supplying essential items, including food, toiletries, home start packs, and fuel top ups. As well as providing these important items, the team also offers information on where to get additional support and a friendly place to chat. They currently provide around 40 packs a week, which is estimated to support an average of 120 people.
Lin continues: “We supply tailored to need food packs, depending on the size of the family, if they have any dietary requirements, what cooking facilities they have – for example, for homeless people we do a non-cook pack. We also give male and female toiletry packs and household cleaning packs. We top up gas and electricity pre-paid meter cards. If needed, we can also supply a bus pass.
“We also do new home packs and we worked out the as over £100, bedding towels, toaster, kettle, saucepans everything. Generally, we don’t have to buy duvet covers as they get donated, but we have to buy duvets, pillows and electrical things. We don’t have any government funding, so this is all possible thanks to donations and grants.”
The food bank collects surplus food each week from Tesco Newton Abbot, via FareShare Go. The store also has a permanent donation point in store that customers can donate long-life food items to for THAT Food Bank to collect.
“At the Tesco donation points, people tend to give things like beans and soup,” says Lin. “We have a label on the collection point with monthly changes showing what we’re short of.
“Our relationship with Tesco is fantastic, Tesco has an absolutely brilliant community champion, Jeanette, who has always supported us. She and the manager have devised a brilliant scheme where they bag what things we need – the bag could be worth from £2 to £5. Every week she checks what we’re short of and she puts those things in the bags, people pick up the bags, pay for it at the till and put it into the donation bin. That’s very targeted and better for us.
“Through Tesco and FareShare Go, we tend to get veg, salad, fruit, sometimes bread, occasionally eggs. People are buying yellow sticker food a lot more now so there’s not as much surplus left over in stores.”
Food is at the heart of what the team at THAT Food Bank do, helping them to bring people in so they can provide them with wraparound care services.
“Food is everything, it’s vital,” Lin states. “People say it’s an absolute life line. It means they can feed the family or themselves, but also with the pre-paid meter top ups they can afford to have fuel, heating and cooking and so forth.”
