From us to you: our food chain

Whether you donate food or receive it, you might be wondering how food gets from A to B through our foodbank. Well, wonder no more!

Here’s what happens to every can, jar and tub before it ends up on your plate.

First of all, our lovely volunteers and staff get out and about in our van. It’s important that our van isn’t branded, because we use that very same van to drop off food parcels later. Nobody should feel bad about receiving a food parcel – we all need to eat!

We visit schools, supermarkets, donation points, churches and all kinds of places across North Trafford to collect donations from organisations, businesses, and sometimes lovely individuals with great connections to wholesalers or who are maybe just feeling very generous. We load up our green and blue boxes on our trolleys, and bring them back to our distribution hub in Stretford.

Once at the distribution hub, our team of lovely volunteers grab their permanent marker pens and get labelling. If you’ve ever had a food parcel from us, you might be wondering why all the food is marked – well, we put the month and year of expiry onto each item of food. This is so we can make sure you’re eating food that’s safe, and also so we can make sure we’re giving out food in the right order.

After that, it goes onto our shelves ready for picking. In the past we’ve needed extra space, but not for a while – so please donate when you can!

Then when vouchers come through, we’re ready – we try and speak to people directly, so we can find out what you want and need. Can’t eat wheat? We’ve got you. Got teenage boys in the house? We know all too well what that’s like. Only got a kettle to cook with? We can still make sure you’ve got hot meals. Run out of salt and pepper, or looking for spices? We would be delighted to have a rummage in our stock room for you.

Most importantly, we make sure you’re able to cook what we’re sending you. If you know your way around a kitchen, we’ll send you ingredients to cook with – but there’s no need to go hungry if you don’t know a spork from a spatula. And why send tins to people who don’t have tin openers?

Next, the food parcels. We use your JustGiving donations to buy sturdy second-hand boxes in bulk from a local supplier, and try and use eco-friendly tape when we can. Using the same boxes every time makes it easier to stack our lovely van, and means we can make the best use of our small space.

Finally, our volunteers load the van back up and hit the road. Distributing food to people in need is the highlight of the job for us, especially since – with unmarked boxes and bags – we know none of the neighbours will be curtain-twitching when we hand over our parcels.

So that’s how it works – no smoke and mirrors here. If you’d like to become part of our food chain, donate now!

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