ALDI KIRK SANDALL - DONCASTER RD

Doncaster Foodbank has been open since September 2013 and provides free, short term, emergency, non-perishable food parcels for people identified as experiencing financial crisis throughout the City. Each emergency parcel provides a family or individual with a minimum of three days’ supply of nutritionally balanced food. Food is donated by schools, churches, businesses, and individuals or through supermarket collections. Our partnerships with local food retailers enable us to provide some surplus fresh food alongside the canned and packaged foods. As well as providing emergency food, Doncaster Foodbank provides essentials like washing powder, sanitary items, pet food, baby food (Not Milk) and toiletries. For the first 9 years of operation the community fed the community as supply matched demand, however since 2022, our shopping bills have steadily risen and the food bank now also relies heavily on funding streams such as grants to buy stock in bulk, to boost the drop in food donations which has been caused by the current cost of living crisis. Every client is referred by one of over 100 Doncaster front-line care professional agencies, such as Doncaster Council, Citizens Advice, Family hubs, School liaison officers, Probation officers, Health visitors, Housing and Mental health teams as well as social workers and other Social Prescribers. They identify people in crisis and issue them with an electronic food bank voucher code which can be exchanged at one of our three food bank centres, for an emergency food parcel. The food parcels have been designed by dieticians to provide recipients with a nutritionally balanced diet. Specific dietary requirements and allergies are catered for, and a client’s cooking facilities are considered, for example being homeless or living in hostel accommodation. Currently, those in need can visit us for provisions on: Tuesdays 10am – 12 noon, St Paul’s Church Wednesdays 10am – 12 noon, St James’ Church Thursdays 10am – 12 noon, Rossington Community Baptist Church (Holmescarr Centre) Fridays 10am – 12 noon, St James’ Church Each foodbank session is run by a team of dedicated volunteers who welcome service users to our centres and offer a warm drink and a snack. They work alongside a rotation of various topical, local support agencies who can advise clients on site and at further appointments, how to handle their longer-term issues and recognise when additional help is needed. Our food bank service is designed to be an emergency food provision service and as such, it is important to put clients in touch with organisations who can help them address the underlying cause of their crisis. We partner with Citizens Advice Doncaster Borough who provide us with a generalist advisor at every session, and we are committed to facilitating support for our clients and helping them to maximise their incomes so that they can break free from the cycle of food poverty.

BME United is a not-for-profit social enterprise situate and operating in Doncaster to advocate the rights of ethnic’s minorities and empower families from ethnic minorities in Doncaster. We do this through our collaborative work with DMBC, partners and stakeholders. In June 2020, we opened our Food Bank following the impact of the Covid- 19 and the highlights of Public Health England and BAME Need Assessment with BAME community members being disproportionately affected by the impact of the Covid -19 because of poverty and some other inequalities. Consequently, there is a need for us to supply food to families from the BAME community who would not otherwise attend regular food banks because of religious and cultural barriers. We have successfully operated our open door and referral food bank once weekly for the past year at our centre on 56-58 Beckett Road, DN2 4AJ. Due to the surge in demand for supplying food to over 30-40 families weekly, we are looking to ask if we can benefit from your surplus food scheme. Our Community Foodbank, a health and well-being group and empowerment centre has had a motivational conversation by encouraging community participation during the pandemic, We are a coordinated team of at least 8 volunteers at the food bank. This involves spotting potential volunteers, following up and finding out how they would like to be involved and accounting for the fluidity of availability that always accompanies voluntary work. Although we are set up to advocate and support families and individuals from the BAME Community, we operate an open-door policy as there is a surge in demand due to the impact of Covid- 19 on several families income irrespective of their race, gender or religion, therefore we are serving a diverse range of communities in Doncaster. Reaching and supporting those who are isolated through the food bank has been a major focus of our work during the pandemic though it would be too much to claim we found everybody isolation is almost by definition difficult to track down. Our extensive links via the food bank network with Doncaster Council, Food Aware CIC and other stakeholders is an aid to helping others access support. We are deeply embedded in our community and have been working during the pandemic to support a large and continually changing group of the financially and physically vulnerable referred to us from a wide variety of sources including various Doncaster council departments, other support workers, schools, private individuals, and our own knowledge. This has given us extensive knowledge of the community and especially many of the most vulnerable and many who have been isolating (and may therefore have become socially isolated).

The purpose of the trust is to advance the christian religion by preaching the gospel of God about his only son, Jesus christ. We are a Christian charity organisation that offer spiritual, emotional, economic empowerment volunteering and training opportunities to people in our community, especially the most vulnerable and deprived. Agape is dedicated to impacting lives through unconditional love and is committed to helping individuals and their communities. Helping people to; discover and maximize their potential, to develop themselves and those around them, bringing together communities and supporting them on their life journey. We partner with the local Council and other like minded organisations for Community development in different capacities.