Argos Dartmouth (Inside Sainsbury's)

To help and support the most vulnerable individuals and families in our neighbourhood. to assist with fuel and food poverty, help find accommodation and furniture,white goods, signpost people to receive help via cab, housing and benefits. run entirely by volunteers based in dartmouth devon

We are a community foodbank and have been operating since 2012. However, in March 2020 we became a registered Charitable Incorporated Organisation with the Charity Commission (1189068). Our charitable purpose is to prevent and/or relieve poverty through the provision of basic food, hygiene and household products as well as fuel top-ups; assistance with housing support and rent arrears; assistance with benefit claims; and assistance with obtaining basic household items. We were nominated as COVID Heroes 2020 by our community and awarded the ‘Organisation’ category by our district council. Prior to COVID-19 we had 30 regular clients and 30 volunteers and made a weekly delivery to our clients every Friday, if they could not collect their food parcels themselves. During COVID-19 we had to rapidly adapt to the changes and the increase in demand which at the peak of lockdown reached 700%. Now, over 110 volunteers support over 187 clients. This includes singles, couples and families, thereby equating to approximately 500 individuals that we are supporting every week; 50% of whom are children aged 18 years old and under. We now make deliveries Monday-Friday to accommodate the increased demand. We operate a meals-on-wheels scheme, we operate a prescription delivery service, we have helped domestic abuse clients relocate, we shop for clients who are self-isolating or in palliative care. Increasingly we are supporting clients with mental health issues. A considerable proportion of our adult clients are elderly and vulnerable. During the pandemic, we have had to diversify what we do greatly to help those in need in our community. We increasingly support vulnerable clients with referrals from Victim Support, schools, Together, South Hams District Council and Devon County Council Adult Social Care Team and Children's Services as well as GPs and 'enforced referrals' from the police. Thus, we have now become a vital link between our community and other support services and external agencies. Our weekly deliveries enable us to keep in touch with our clients, some of whom live in remote locations and ensure their well-being and deal with any safeguarding issues appropriately. We have over 110+ volunteers who shop, sort, pack and deliver food parcels - without them we simply could not do the work we do. We have extraordinary support from our local community too. Due to this we can spend 99% of monies raised directly on clients. Our work covers approximately 117 square miles in a beautiful part of the world, however, there are pockets of deprivation and the rural nature of our area also means that isolation is an issue, without COVID-19 due to its remoteness. High private rents and seasonal work combine to create insecurity for many people in our community. COVID-19 has exacerbated these conditions and, sadly, we envisage that the fallout from COVID-19 will be long lasting and that our essential frontline services will be needed for some time in the future.