At a recent event representatives from all areas of our charity met. There was something special about getting people together – it helped us all understand how our roles fit together and provided a great opportunity to share ideas.
It was especially exciting to hear the enthusiasm about The Bridge Food Project, our innovative food club that offers members affordable, nutritious food alongside budgeting and cooking support, helping people transition towards food security and independence.
During the session there was an opportunity to post questions, suggestions and encouragements, and here we’ve collated them all, along with answers!
Questions:
- Where does funding for advice (e.g. CAB) come from?
We have received grant funding for both CA projects (Bristol & South Glos). This funding won’t be continuous, and we’ll have to look for alternative funding after the current projects end. - What training will Bridge volunteers receive?
A walk-through of how Bridge runs from a staff member and we’ll occasionally offer other training as opportunities come up, including for First Aid and safeguarding. All volunteers receive food bank policies which give an induction overview. - Will the new hubs be open to anyone, not just clients?
They’ll be open to all members of the public, not just clients. That’s why we’re calling our hubs Community Connect Spaces – we want everyone in the local community to feel able to turn up and engage with a variety of activities that will be happening. - Are all outlets expected to have no items left at the end of a session?
No. As we allow clients some choice in what’s included in their parcels, we expect sessions to end with a bit of stock left over. The maximum amounts on the order form should allow for about a week and a half’s stock (or a very busy week!), ready for the next order to arrive.
Suggestions:
- Training for newbies (warehouse)
We always do an induction at the warehouse and talk through the charity and all the different areas, but we can absolutely look more into doing refreshers for everybody. All volunteers receive food bank policies which give an induction overview and we’ll occasionally offer other training as opportunities come up. - Please can we have a volunteer at Mangotsfield to stock the cupboard on Thursdays?
This role is on our list of advertised volunteer vacancies, and we will let you know as soon as we have anyone interested. - Could we have tours of outlets/Bridge? To get better understanding of their role, etc.
Yes! If you are interested in going to different parts of the organisation to see what they’re like, we’d be keen to make it happen. If you email the office at , we can organise a visit that suits your schedule. - More use of WhatsApp group to inform of updates/new ways of working
Some of our Outlets and our Warehouse team have found WhatsApp chats really useful. We are completely aware that not all of our volunteers like or use WhatsApp so it is up to you (although we have seen it be really successful in some settings!). Now that we have the Volunteer Dashboard we will aim to add updates on there to keep everyone up to date. - Would be really helpful to know when a client of ours has been refused a voucher
Our current practice is to let the outlet teams know when we do refuse vouchers, but we don’t do it often (we usually tell people they can’t have any more). Once we transition to having access to the DCS (voucher system) in outlets instead of just spreadsheets, you’ll also be able to see when someone has had a voucher cancelled (which would be the action taken on DCS if we refuse a voucher). - Can we lay out the food bank more like Bridge?
We would love to start the conversation with outlet teams that are interested in this idea, to explore if/how it would be possible and manageable within the time and space that outlet teams have. At the moment it’s not something that we are planning to do everywhere, unless teams feel they could make it work and would want to, but if some outlets trial it and find it an improvement, we will look to see if we can roll it out on a bigger scale. If you would like to explore this for your outlet, please email or give the office a call. - Would like to work towards more Bridge style outlets – more choice for clients
See answer above, get in touch with us and we can have a chat. As you can see from the following response to question 8, we want to ensure our operations are efficient and streamlined, but we also recognise that the client’s journey and experience is the most important thing, and if outlets operating more like Bridge will improve that, then we’re open to exploring it. - Less “one size fits all”, more space for outlets to choose what works for them
We have opted for a more “one size fits all” model as we feel very strongly that a client should be able to go to all of our outlets and have the same experience (across the region there are many different food provision services and it can be overwhelming and confusing for people to know how to navigate them all). We also want to steward our resources really well and looking at the organisation as a whole, running 10 outlets across NBSG (including Bridge), by having a ‘one size fits all’ approach, we can make our operations more efficient, streamlined and resource effective. Where this will differ is with the community connect spaces as these will be different in every location and will allow space for teams to create their own hub. We also know that each outlet has a different identity and culture in terms of the team, space, location, and signposting of other local, community activities and we celebrate that. - It would be nice to find a way to communicate good news about our outlet’s work
We’re really keen to help with this! If you have a story, Aidan (our comms guy) would be happy to share it with our supporters. You can either email him at , or direct volunteers to submit stories here. Please note that stories involving clients shouldn’t include any identifiable information, unless they give express written permission (we can help with obtaining that too, if you’d like). - Would it help if people know there will be support e.g. CAB present at foodbank (i.e. in advance)?
We have now added a sentence to our SMS templates to let clients know that CA will be at the outlet (or referral option for it) so that people can plan for it. For our volunteers, we’re working on publishing a live calendar on the Volunteer Dashboard to show exactly when each advisor will be at an outlet every week. Watch this space. - Carrier bags – could we have a mixture of paper and plastic bags? Paper bags aren’t waterproof and are a problem for walkers.
I (Shauna) have tested the carrier bags in the shower and they held the food totally fine so that’s a surprise to me! I’d love to chat more about what your experience has been. But yes to having a mix of bags! Both are on the order form but the plastic bags aren’t always in stock, so please keep ordering both and when we get more in we will send them over to you. - Could the supermarkets make it clear to donors that products should not contain alcohol?
We’re making new donation suggestion lists for supermarkets to put up by donation points, including a note of items we can’t use. (However supermarkets can decide how much space they allow for these notices). - When adverts go out for items we need, could they be more specific, and also target more of the essential items (and the more nutritious ones, e.g. not sweet treats or hot dogs)?
Thank you, yes, we’ll work on making our donation requests more specific. We don’t ask people to donate hot dogs. - Miscellaneous – have the really random stuff available for clients to choose, but under supervision of a volunteer e.g. a single can choose 1 item, couple 2 etc.
Definitely interested in chatting about this further. Because we want to have every outlet provide the same service, we need to check if this is feasible in all centres.
Encouragements:
- Loving the allotment!
- Well done for all the volunteers
- We are so blessed to have such dedicated volunteers
- The whole NBSG Foodbank operation is so well organised. Thank you!
- NBSG team are quick and responsive and always on hand to help – very much appreciated – thank you
- Very grateful for your patience, understanding and willingness to help
- More signposting is really helping clients
- Team are getting on board with and promoting community café
- Citizens Advice goes down really well
- The relief shown by some clients is a bit overwhelming at times. Just know the difference you are making
- Bridge projects are a positive way forward!
- Allotment is fab!
Thank you so much for all your encouragements!
If you have any follow-up questions, suggestions or encouragements, please don’t hesitate to email us at .