Dear Friends
What’s the most predictable thing about Dover Foodbank? Hopefully that we will be here to help support local people in their times of need – and that we will be here for as long as needed. But we have known only too well that there is no way we can second-guess just how much help will be needed from us from one day to the next. As many of you will know – we have been providing a delivery service for a little over one year – but just how many deliveries go out on any day can vary from as few as 2 to as many as 30; we are really thankful for the volunteer delivery teams and their understanding as they respond to these changes in delivery numbers. Like several other foodbanks in the South East of England, we have experienced an easing of demand for support over the last few weeks – indeed, at the end of March the rolling year-on-year increase in the numbers of people we are supporting had dropped to under 25% for the first time since the start of the Covid19 pandemic. However, we know that things can change almost overnight so we continue to be prepared for the worst (as best we can) whilst hoping for the best. We can only hope that the recent reduction in the number of people we are supporting is due to there being less need, which would be great. One change which we have noticed is that we have recently been supporting fewer families and a higher percentage of one-person households. As for the next month or two – we are not going to predict what the need level will be, but we will continue to respond as best we can to all the support referrals that come our way.
For several months now we have been providing a small number of households each week with supplies of fresh food in addition to our usual tinned / longlife / dried / non-perishable items (“cupboard food items” as some have called them). We do have a volunteer opportunity for someone who enjoys shopping / has good telephone manner / is able to deliver to people’s homes (doorstep delivery). If you feel you could be this volunteer then please contact us on 07870 361180 or by e-mail: [email protected] and we will get further information to you and answer any questions you may have – we would be delighted to hear from you! Volunteers currently involved in this normally make one or possibly two shopping trips a week and then deliver that shopping to the relevant homes – we are flexible about shopping days and frequency.
Thank you all for your support once again, it is, as always, very much appreciated, and I am sure you will be relieved to know that stocks continue to hold up well – thanks to the amazing generosity of you and others within our local community. Do please feel free to circulate / forward / share / distribute the contents of this e-mail. And don’t forget – if you have any questions you want answered, please send me an e-mail about it and I will try to answer in the next week or so.
With kindest regards and every best wish – keep safe and keep well.
Jonathan and the Dover Foodbank team
Milk – UHT
Dried Pasta and Sauce meals
Fruit juice
Sponge puddings
Noodles – small pkts
Marmalade
Tea bags
Pasta Sauces
Baby wipes
Cat Food
We currently have plenty of Pasta and Ladies’ sanitary items