FICadmin

Grant News

Food in Community was recently awarded more than £31,000 by DEFRA from their Food Charities Grant Scheme, to help with the costs of buying food from local producers for its recipients during the pandemic.

Food Minister Victoria Prentis said:  

“Food in Community has been doing brilliant work amid a significant increase in demand over the past few months.  It is absolutely vital they have the resources they need and this funding has helped them provide food to some of the most vulnerable people in Totnes, and indeed across South Devon, at this enormously challenging time.” 

Co-director David Markson said, "The DEFRA grant has enabled us to purchase food from around twenty local food producers at a time when demand from their hotel and catering customers fell. 100% of the money was to be spent on food for struggling households. It’s fantastic to be able to simultaneously support people in need of food parcels and businesses who are struggling financially due to the pandemic, local jobs and sustainable food production."

Food in Community was established in response to food waste, food poverty and social isolation. Volunteers collect and re-distribute surplus vegetables, fruit and other fresh food from local producers, benefiting vulnerable households across South Devon. This has equated to more than 2.5 tonnes per week of surplus and non-surplus high quality food being distributed, generating a massive saving for local charities whilst enabling them to treat their beneficiaries to the best quality fresh food.

Co-Director, Chantelle Norton added, “More than 25 organisations across South Devon have received food for their recipients to date as a result of this DEFRA grant, in addition to the households we help directly. One organisation told us that their clients were delighted and that the food was helping enormously, especially with the young families struggling to access nutritious fresh food. Feedback so far from end recipients of the food is that they are really enjoying eating it, with one describing it as ‘A ray of sunshine delivered to my doorstep.’”

by FICadmin

Spring 2020 The Lockdown Issue

We thought we would update you on FiC’s plans for the weeks ahead now lockdown is upon us. This is when the solidarity and friendship we have nurtured together come into their own. Please do stay in touch and let us know if you need help, or can offer it. We are all going to need to reach out in different ways to get through this.

How to help yourself, neighbours and friends if experiencing loss of income

Many of us are experiencing a sudden drop in income. If this is causing immediate hardship, please check out the COVID-19 pages on your local council website. Most have links to the different grant schemes, although we are aware already that some are falling between the cracks. You can also find your local Citizen’s Advice Bureau online, and fill in the contact form to request a ring back. South Hams CAB staff are all working from home, they are experiencing higher volumes of enquiries than usual but they will get back by telephone, in a few days usually, and will advise regarding housing, bills, debt, benefits, and can refer to the food bank most local to you for an emergency food parcel. Get in touch with us if someone has no food in the house, are vulnerable or live with someone who is and they need food immediately.  We are offering an emergency food doorstep delivery service for Totnes and district postcodes, in addition to our scheduled food delivery service.

Provision for medically vulnerable elderly

We started a new collaboration with Totnes Caring, where FiC deliver small packs of easy to prepare / eat food to their clients’ doorsteps. We delivered the first box to a lovely chap who is confined to his flat due to multiple health conditions. Next week we will be able to add fresh soup and pies due to the generosity of Tideford Organic soups and Clive’s Pies.

Produce Deliveries

Weekly produce box deliveries continue uninterrupted, with extra procedures to reduce the risk of infection to our volunteers, donors and recipients. We are fielding a much higher than usual volume of calls from the public requesting help but because we are not a phone advice service, we are signposting people to local services to help with money problems, issues with getting shopping delivered, issues with shielding food boxes, and in the meantime are working hard to increase our supply of surplus food for food banks and people in crisis.

Our suppliers are being absolutely brilliant about donating food despite the huge uncertainties for their own operations. Orders are down for some, whilst for others orders are through the roof, but some are already having to reduce their output due to staff absence. Please do support our local ethical food businesses if you possibly can by buying their products, liking their social media posts and directing friends who have lost work to help them fill any advertised gaps in their workforce. They give back quietly and so generously behind the scenes by donating their surplus food and for the good of our community. FYI Riverford temps are recruited through Mego Recruitment.

Provision for families during school closure

Whilst schools and charities we usually support have paused most activities, we are collaborating with the Connection Hub (Totnes Food Bank) to put together recipe food boxes for their clients and families in receipt of free school meals. The government announced yesterday that there will be support for children receiving free school meals, but support does not usually cover school holiday periods, so we are targeting a start date of week commencing Monday 30^th March, when the schools would ordinarily have broken up for the Easter holidays. We have started to comb the FiC cafe archives for straightforward recipes that the families at home together can replicate and that children will enjoy.

Food in Community continues to run on a shoestring, we do a lot with relatively little, but we are reliant on income from our cafes, events and workshops to keep our van on the road and cover other essential expenses such as insurance, which is shortly due for renewal. If you feel able to help, or know of anyone who is keen to support our work by donating, Food in Community’s bank details are as follows:

Coop bank

Sort code 08 92 99

Account no 65637340          Thank you x

Pay What You Feel Community Cafes

Cafes in Newton Abbot and Totnes will be cancelled for the time being, so we are continuing to prioritise supplying produce to food banks and COVID-19 support groups who are cooking for people who cannot prepare their own meals. We are offering a stand in service for cooks who are making meals for the vulnerable, who may have to self isolate, may be struggling with childcare, or need a break.

Looking beyond the pandemic, our pay what you feel cafes like ours could have a vital role in rebuilding our communities and could offer a vital stepping stone back to work for displaced catering and hospitality workers. We would like to see a (government supported?) community café in every town and village, and a pay what you feel model, meaning that everyone can eat good sustainably produced food in a friendly environment and at a fair price.

Gleaning update

Local farmers and growers are real heroes, especially in the current crisis, ensuring there is still good food available. Before we enter the hungry gap, when food is not being harvested locally, we will be field gleaning. Due to the risks of lift sharing with people you don’t live in the same space with, we can only bring a small number of gleaners and all must drive separately to the gleaning location in the South Hams. Let us know if you can help.

STOP PRESS ……

FiC was filmed today by Riverford’s Wicked Leeks team. We were asked about the impact the coronavirus is having on people who rely on food donations and the wider issues of food poverty, inequality and isolation and how FiC helps to address this. Great to be asked. Look out for that piece on social media very soon.

And finally……….

The very talented and engaging Newton Abbot Ukulele band pictured above at a fundraising event for FiC at Ashprington Village’s Coffee Morning recently. An amazing and very useful £160 was raised! A very big thank you to our volunteer David Davis who organised the event and also played and to the residents of Ashprington village who attended and gave very generously.

by FICadmin