In just the 4 short years of operation, we at The North Newcastle Food Bank have seen our client numbers increase dramatically month on month, with more and more families forced into unnecessary financial difficulties and no end to the corporate profiteering, price gouging & cost of living increases besieging us all.

We are a charity entirely dependent on donations & a volunteer work force, many of which are elderly or have limited mobility & every single hand available is working towards supporting our local & broader community, every hour given freely to help alleviate the needless struggles we see proliferating through out our families, friends & neighbours.

Recently our ability to deliver these vital services has been negatively impacted by reduced donations, increased demand, burglary!, property damage, shop theft and a council seemingly closed off to collaboration, who (despite our existence alleviating their own burden) instead are intent on moving us out of the Community Centre with a view to replacing us with a rumoured Cricket Pavilion & sports ground, that no one within the local community has even asked for and very few will ever benefit from, purely by "coincidence" they have made the decision to triple our rent & up our utility charges.

With this in mind we are forced to consider our organization's operations & the desired impact it is, or isn't having. So we decided for the first time, to lift our nose from the grind stone for just long enough to do some calculations.

Our Data Protection policies & procedures dictate that we destroy contacts within 18 months of being discharged,

however, in the last 18 months;

We have added 1041 individuals

to our clients contacts list.

That is a staggering

658 separate households
(Each receiving 5 bags of food a week, for an average of 4 weeks)

This equates to....

13160 bags of food delivered.

With an average requirement of 3 meals a day per person, for an average of 4 weeks service,

that means 84 meals on average, per client, per term of use.

Using these figures, we estimate we have provided ingredients for an unbelievable..

87444

MEALS

Nutritious, real food, drinks, additional self care & household cleaning items, pet food & baby formula all delivered to needlessly struggling individuals, all within just the last 18 months.

THIS DOES NOT ACCOUNT FOR..

 The hundreds of miles driven weekly in deliveries & donation collections, our Charity Shop, Household Furniture provisions, Special Educational Needs support, 3rd party referrals, Africa bags, homeless support, baby & mother care package, discount Community Meals, beginner cookery classes, children's, new mother & men's mental health groups or the community discount table services that are also simultaneously undertaken by us at The Brunswick Park Centre.

Frankly the attitude, distinct lack of support & active undermining we have received from municipal governing bodies is atrociously insulting.

WITHOUT THE LOCAL COMMUNITY & VOLUNTEER WORK FORCE PROVIDING THE SUPPORT THEY HAVE FAILED TO DELIVER

they would have an even more dire situation to manage.

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP?

Firstly by sharing or interacting with this blog post on your social media profiles. You can repost it by either using the links at the bottom of this post, or copy & pasting the URL into your post or clicking "share" on someone else's post on your feed.

 We also need honest feedback, testimonials, social media exposure, connections, hands, donations, & any and all support you can think of to continue our operations & hold on to our precious HQ. We have huge plans afoot for the next 18 months and beyond, with Youth Club activities like Boxing, Music Production & Language Through Lyricism Classes, Men's Mental Health Support, a return of our Community Cafe & expansion of our Community Meals service (which have recently seen Kitchen refurb funding blocked by the council), Coffee Mornings, Baby & Mother groups & much more but in order to facilitate these plans, we need to maintain our presence & headquarters at the heart of the community.

Pop in and complete an anonymous feedback form, tell us how we do, or can help each other & let's connect & build together. If those in charge continue to refuse a helping hand, just as we working class communities historically always have, we will come together and resolve the issues ourselves without them, and indeed in spite of them.