THE FOODBANK project was piloted in Salisbury in December 2000, to test whether food could be collected from people shopping at supermarkets and then pre-packed in emergency boxes to give away to people in short term crisis, working in partnership with care professionals such as health visitors. Pioneered by The Trussell Trust, the vision is to franchise the Food Bank project as a national scheme, empowering others with the necessary tools, training and support to set-up and independently run Foodbanks in towns and cities across the UK.

The Gloucester Foodbank aims to meet the fundamental need of food for disadvantaged and vulnerable people in Gloucester. This need is met through a straightforward system of collection, collation and distribution of basic food items to support people in times of crisis. Offering a temporary and very practical stop-gap, assistance from the Foodbank can also be used as a catalyst for starting to get to grips with some of the fundamental challenges that overwhelm people. We provide free emergency food for three days, which is often the time it can take for appropriate agencies to be in a position to assist. As such, this provides a short breathing space to enable longer-term solutions to be applied.

You may not have thought it but five areas in Gloucester fall into the top 10% for multiple deprivation in the country, and one area is in the top 2.7% (Indices of Multiple Deprivation 2007). When you have no financial safety net, a sudden crisis, such as bereavement, benefit delay, redundancy or illness, can leave you unable to feed yourself or your family. Such situations can quickly deteriorate, leading to relationship breakdown, house repossession or worse. Gloucester foodbank works to support people who find themselves on the edge of crisis.

Since September 2004, volunteers have been raising awareness in the community of the Gloucester Foodbank through school harvest festival assemblies and collections of donated food at supermarkets, and also through promotion of the Gloucester Foodbank in the media, churches and other local organisations.

Thousands of items of food were collected for the launch of Gloucester Foodbank in April 2005. The public seem well disposed to the project and have donated generously, with many people commenting that they are happy to support a local work making a difference to local people. To organise and distribute the large amounts of food, The Foodbank Centre and a warehouse facility were opened.

The Gloucester Foodbank needs nearly 2 tonnes of food per month to maintain a level of giving which enables our objectives to be fulfilled. This is maintained by the tireless efforts of volunteers, schools, churches and community groups.