A Nottingham foodbank marking 10 years of service is launching a dedicated space for people struggling with energy bills to come and keep warm this winter. The NG11 foodbank launched in September 2012 and since that time has fed around 13,600 people, including 6,000 children.
Ahead of the rise in energy bills in October, councils across Nottinghamshire have been drawing up plans in recent months to launch 'warm banks' - where people unable to afford their heating bill can use a public space to keep warm. Many councils are still trying to decide on the most appropriate venues, but the team at the NG11 foodbank are now ready to welcome people into its own facility.
Wendy White, 54, who is the foodbank manager, said that people are becoming "desperate" ahead of the winter and that the warm bank could help. It will be based at The Hope Centre in Clifton, where the foodbank is based and which is also home to The Hope Church and a community café.
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People who have been referred to the foodbank will be able to use the community café as a space to keep warm and get a hot meal from 9am until 2pm every week between Tuesday and Friday. Wendy White said: "We're always having to adapt our services and it's about to get cold so the heating will need to go on, but we are seeing more and more people who just cannot make ends meet.
"We have had some money set aside and we've been planning to launch the warm bank for the last few months but we're ready to launch now. People who have a voucher will be able to use it to get a hot meal from Tuesday to Friday.
"When we first launched the foodbank we thought that we'd be here for about six months or perhaps a year, but we're still here now and we keep getting busier. People's wages are just not keeping up with the cost of living."
A 'fuel bank' was also launched in the last few months by the NG11 team, where people on prepayment metres who are referred to the service can get £10 put on their card. The warm bank is being launched just as the NG11 team, which now includes over 45 volunteers, mark 10 years since they first began operating.
Reverend Stephen Hackney, who has been the Pastor of Hope Church since the foodbank was launched there, said: "I've got mixed feelings about marking 10 years because we're obviously continuing to serve a need in the community and we've always had fantastic support from people in the community as well.
"People who volunteer with us really have a sense that they are giving something back. But it is sad that this service needs to exist in the first place."
One of those who has volunteered at the foodbank since its launch 10 years ago is Sue Hands, 75, who has lived in Clifton for 50 years. She said: "The way that the community in Clifton has come together to help this foodbank, and particularly during the covid pandemic, has just been amazing.
"I've been here since day one but it isn't just a one-sided thing, because I had lost my husband and helping at the foodbank gave me that social contact. I've made so many friends since coming here."
Jenny Farrall-Bird, an Area Manager for the Trussell Trust, which runs the NG11 foodbank, said: "We would usually expect to see demand drop in the summer because the councils run kids' clubs and so on in the holidays, but we didn't see the demand go down this year.
"The foodbank itself operates every Tuesday and Saturday and we're feeding between 90 and 100 people a week at the moment. We recently worked out that we're about 34% busier than we were this time a year ago and it keeps getting busier - but there is still a real stigma about coming into foodbanks."
Foodbank manager Wendy White added: "The big change is that when we started here, the vast majority of people using the service were on income support but now, we're not just getting people on benefits such as Universal Credit. We have had people in very high-end roles who just can't afford to provide for their families.
"We're here to offer a space for everyone to come and use the service without being judged. By marking ten years, we're not celebrating the foodbank, but just acknowledging the amazing hard work and community spirit of everybody who works with us."
A Citizens Advice worker is now also based at The Hope Centre every week. In terms of other warm banks across Nottinghamshire, Nottingham City Council recently said that it would be some weeks before it could confirm its arrangements.
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