The team of staff and volunteers at the Bournemouth Foodbank received a visit from the High Sheriff of Dorset last July. We’ve recently received a published article as part of the brochure Inspiring Hope – An insight into the inspirational work of some of Dorset’s charities and towns […] featuring our Foodbank and would love to share it with you. Thank you so much to the High Sheriff for his visit and the interest he showed in our work.
Giving hope to anyone who is experiencing a crisis and cannot afford to buy food for themselves or their family.
“Debbie Coombes is such a bundle of energy with so many ideas for the future: online cooking courses, veg growing opportunities, a hub for the homeless, and other plans. ” GS
We support anyone who is experiencing a crisis and cannot afford to buy food for themselves. We aim to enable them to move out of poverty and into a sustainable life by giving basic practical support, a listening ear and signposting them to other agencies who can work with them to move them towards this goal. We also offer voluntary work in a number of areas for those that are unemployed, the objective being to enable them to return to work.
Life in the pandemic has been incredibly challenging – mentally and physically – for many, resulting in a big increase in the need for our services with people struggling to make ends meet financially. We have issued almost 9000, three-day food parcels to people in our local community, often supplemented with personal and home hygiene products, toys, and fresh produce. Our Hub volunteers have done an amazing job to support people whilst keeping everyone physically safe.
Our most successful and exciting project in 2020 has been moving our basic cooking and budgeting course online. This has helped many people to learn to cook healthy meals inexpensively. During the 6-week course, the participants receive basic equipment and the ingredients. A coach supports them online to do the paper exercises around budgeting and shopping as well as answering any questions they have. It has been really rewarding for us to watch and see them progress into confident cooks.
From testimonies, we know that our service can bring hope, relief and support changing the lives of many people who reach out to us via their support agencies, as well as helping to prevent crime. We will continue to do this until we are no longer needed.
