December 2020 Newsletter
Well, we’re coming to the end of what has felt like one of the longest years in history… 2020 has been a very difficult year for most, if not all, of us. Much has happened that we could never have seen coming - but as a nation we’ve risen to the challenge! And no one has risen to that challenge more than our supporters and volunteers. Demand for emergency food parcels has dramatically risen this year as a result of seemingly ever increasing job losses across the North East. As a charity, we’ve been able to supply the most vulnerable in our community with emergency food, donate additional supplies to local school breakfast clubs and further support for other local similar charities.
None of this would have been possible without YOUR help - and for that we are eternally grateful. YOU are what keeps this charity and it’s vital working going.
As donations come in we tend to publicly thank as many of you as we can on our facebook page, but we understand this isn’t the best way to read about all the generous people in North Tyneside. We’ve collated a collection of some of the donations and displays of generosity below, alongside some of the latest goings on at the foodbank for your reading pleasure.
We receive donations daily - there’s always folks dropping by - but we have to have a cut off for the newsletter somewhere… So if you’re not featured, we apologise! You might have popped up on our social media though :)
Coronavirus Update
Like every place of work, we’ve had to adapt to new ways of working to accommodate the health and safety requirements needed to keep the warehouse COVID-Secure. We’d like to say a big thank you to Gordon for making us an outdoor wooden frame and canopy to enable us to accept and process donations outside, no matter the weather. Things were a lot easier in the warm, summer months, but now as we move into winter we’ll have to make sure the indoor heaters are running! We’ve also made social distancing possible in the warehouse itself by rearranging tables and changing the way we do things.
Unlike social distancing, PPE isn’t free and like many places of work we’ve had to find ways to get hold of what we need. We’d like to say a big thank you to all those who have donated PPE, such as masks, visors and hand gel to us, including Karbon Homes and many others for being so generous in doing so.
Foodbank Updates
In the past few months, we’ve successfully launched our brand new website! You can find all sorts of helpful information here, including our history, our volunteers, how to donate, and all the latest goings on at the charity itself. Have a look around!
We’d like to make a special thank you Phil Aitken for all of his many years of service he’d put in as our dedicated delivery driver. A few months ago Phil stepped down from his role, to be replaced by Gordon - another great addition. Thank you for your service Phil!
This year we also bid farewell to Ruth Stradling, our former Treasurer, who had been with us since the early days. Ruth has since moved onto pastures new after being recommended to train for ordained ministry in the Church of England. We wish her all the best and thank her greatly for all her help and expertise over the years!
The daily running of the charity is only made possible by the hours that our wonderful volunteers put in. Unfortunately, many have had to shield themselves during lockdown and some are still currently unable to return. We’d like to thank them for their hours of support they’ve put in with us when they can, and we hope they’re doing well. You’re not forgotten and we can’t wait to have you all back when it’s safe to do so! Thank you to the new volunteers who have joined us and helped out with the massive increase in demand for the service!
We also held out AGM at the end of October, where we discussed how the charity was doing and where it’s headed in a bit more detail. Thank you to all who attended via everyone’s favourite video chat service - Zoom!
Statistics
As the years go by, it’s becoming increasingly challenging to keep a record of just how many people we’re helping as the numbers are so high. We supply food parcels of various sizes, primarily for Singles, Couples and Families. Families can range in size and will often include a variety of ages. This year, we have recorded a record number of referrals nearing 6000 in a year! Our busiest month was April, which we can only assume was due to lockdown; where we received 692 referrals in a month! In March alone we supplied nearly 14,000 meals! The amount of individuals helped will easily be over 10,000! We’re looking to get these figures nailed soon. This has only been possible with the generous support and donations we receive from all of our wonderful supporters! Thank you!
Community Action
As with each newsletter, there are so many generous people to thank for their donations. We try to keep everyone updated with this via our Facebook page, but you can find some special mentions below. This is by no means everyone - there just isn’t space to thank you all!
Every year we look forward to linking up with lots of local schools and churches in the area as part of their Harvest Festivals. We receive a huge amount of donations as a result of this, which helps put us in good stead for the busy Christmas period. Thank you everyone who donated as part of Harvest!
During the summer, staff & volunteers from VODA and North Tyneside Council put together free food parcels for residents in the area over lockdown. The service was then handed over to the Foodbank to run until it ended on August 1st. These food parcels were delivered by the wonderful ‘Good Neighbours’ volunteer project. We’d like to say a big thank you to everyone involved, and to our long-standing volunteers Tracey, Alan & Gordon who spent a great deal of time organising everything from pick up times to delivery addresses!
Back in September, we helped launch Hygiene Pack’s alongside North Tyneside Council! Our hygiene pack includes detergent, washing up liquid, hand sanitiser, antibacterial wipes, antibacterial spray and bleach, as well as personal hygiene products that we provide in our emergency food parcels as standard. If those in need are unable to afford food, items such as cleaning products are often out of financial reach too.
We’d like to thank Lorraine Sweeney for her Christmassy way of raising funds for the work we do here! ‘The Little Christmas Tree Appeal’ encourages people to donate financially Every time a donation is made, a bauble will be added to the little tree, in the run up to the big day. She’s recently passed the £300 mark - thank you to everyone who has donated! You can make a donation via her Local Giving page by clicking HERE.
A big thank you to everyone at Tynemouth Nursery at Battle Hill for their donations!
Thank you to West Allotment Juniors Football Team for their donations!
And MANY, MANY MORE!!
Business Donations
This year has been amazing in terms of business and corporate donations to the Foodbank. Quite often, they are in a very good position to donate either financially or with their own products. Whether it’s hundreds of deodorants or thousands of toilet rolls, we make sure it all gets donated to those in need alongside their emergency food parcels. Again, most of those we have thanked appear on our Facebook page, but you can find a brief list of some of the businesses who’ve donated to us over the past few months below.
Over the past few years, we’ve worked very closely with many local Supermarkets to increase donations and support, including Sainsbury’s. This year, they’d made us one of their Food Donation Partners as part of their 2 week ‘Help Brighten a Million Christmasses’ campaign running from 14th-24th December! This means that they will match EVERY customer donation across Sainsbury’s, Argos & Nectar! You can find out more about the campaign by clicking HERE.
We also received a HUGE amount of help, to support those most in need, from Morrisons who were donating £1000 PER MONTH during lockdown across food and finances!
One of our most recent supporters, and also now one of our biggest, is Enigma Tap in North Shields. Since lockdown, they have raised over THOUSANDS OF POUNDS(!) for us to allow us to continue the work we do! Amazing! They’ve also supplied us with food, fruit, vegetables and all manner of other necessities! You can read more about the support they’ve given us by clicking HERE.
We’d also like to give special thanks to everyone at P&G for their continued support and donations over what is now a multi-year partnership! Since working together, they have supplied us with everything from toiletries to food to finances to to soap powder simple manpower - the list goes on! A big shout out to Andy Sherwood from P&G who joined our Board of Trustees too, and offers invaluable help to us. Thank you!
Thank you to our long term supporters at First Class Supply in Whitley Bay for all of their help and donations over the years, especially collecting donations for us this Christmas!
Thank you to all the staff at EE (Cobalt) for their generous donations of food, toys and time this Christmas! Especially Andy & Shaz! Thank you all!
A huge thank you to Greggs (Whitley Bay & North Shields) for years of continued weekly donations and support!
Thank you to the local branch of Arnold Clark for their £1000 donation! Wow! And not forgetting the free loan of their community van for the busy run up to Christmas! Much appreciated!
In other van-related giving, we’d like to thank all those at Redgate Lodge Motor Group & Bosch Service Centre for servicing and valeting our delivery van for us!
Thank you to Odeon & Costa (Silverlink) and B&Q for their recent donations!
Foxhunters Tyres & Alloys have generously opened up their place of business as another Donation Drop-off Location - thank you! You can see the full list of drop off locations by clicking HERE.
Thank you to Howard Russell Construction for their generous donations of £500 and Jasmine Yoga for their donation of £500 too!
Yet more very generous supporters to thank publically include Turnbull Funeral Directors who donated £1000!
Thank you to Bernhardt Schulte Shipmanagement for their donations!
As we mentioned earlier, supporting people with matters relating to hygiene is a big part of what we do. And so, thank you to Colgate for their big van full of toothpaste for us to include in our food parcels!
Travel travel travel. Don’t forget to support and use your local public transport provider, when safe to do so, as they supported us a great deal this year. Thank you to Go North East and Nexus for their support and donations!
Thank you to Nick from the Boundary Mill (Shiremoor) store for donating 1000 Easter eggs during lockdown! We received so many of these treats that we were able to include them in all of our food parcels, and also donate a large amount of them to local children’s hospitals, hospices and schools.
And MANY, MANY MORE!!
Whilst 2020 has been one to remember, we’re confident that 2021 will be just as memorable too - but for much happier reasons! 2021 will be the year we continue to pull together and get ourselves back on track. We look forward to, one day, being able to see our friends, hug our families and just get busy living! Until then, the BAY Foodbank will be here for all those who need us. We’re in this together.
We hope you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!
From all of us at The BAY Foodbank x