We hope everyone had a lovely Easter break. It's been a busy two weeks at the Barrow Foodbank. Three of our volunteers visited the North Lakes Foodbank, big thanks to Jessie who very kindly showed them round and shared the things they've learned. North Lakes foodbank are currently feeding 150 people a month, and are an amazing example of how well a foodbank can work.

The warehouse is decorated, the shelving is up and so far initial donations have reached 360kg! We need a lot more to open though, a whopping three tons (that's 3000kgs for those who have to google it, like I did!). We're hoping to have some large supermarket drives soon, let's knuckle down for the final push.

Training days are approaching. If anyone would like to volunteer for the warehouse please email warehouse@barrow.foodbank.org.uk so we can arrange a date for warehouse training, thank you! Remember, working in the warehouse requires no ongoing commitment and times are flexible.

Updated Shopping List

You may notice that this shopping list is a little different to one you've seen on a leaflet or been given by a rep, if in doubt, refer to this one as it's slightly more in depth. 

Milk (full fat or semi-skimmed UHT, please no skimmed)
Fruit juice (1 ltr carton UHT)
Teabags/Instant Coffee (medium)

Meat (eg corned beef, tinned fray bentos pies etc)
Vegetarian alternatives to meat (tinned, eg Bean chilli)
Fish
Tomatoes (Tinned or Carton)
Fruit
Vegetables
Soup (Preferably tinned rather than cuppa soup)
Rice Pudding
Tinned Sponge Pudding
Evaporated Milk
Custard (tinned or UHT carton)

Pasta Sauces
Instant Mash Potato
Sugar
Jam
Pasta (Medium bags of dried pasta)
Rice
Biscuits or Snack Bars
Cereal (med and large boxes)


These are the essentials that we need to fill nutritionally balanced 
boxes. However we do welcome  'extras' that are added according to 
individual need.
Some examples of welcome extras are hot chocolate mix, sweets for 
children, squash etc. Pasta in sauce mixes and cuppa soups are given out 
as extras. Non food extras can include baby wipes and nappies, sanitary 
towels, toiletries eg soap and toothpaste.

Thursday saw our first meeting with church representatives - many thanks to all who attended. We now have representatives for 13 churches in the Barrow area. If you'd like to represent your church or organisation please contact us at volunteer@barrow.foodbank.org.uk. You can download a volunteer form here.  A meeting for organisation representatives is being organised and will take place after Easter.


What do reps do? - 
Reps play a very important role within the foodbank. In brief, we would ask you to

• set up a food collection point within your church or workplace together with a poster, initial shopping lists, volunteer forms and gift aid forms
• Encourage people to sign up for our newsletter electronically on our website, and to visit the blog and facebook
• Arrange for collected food to be delivered to the warehouse for sorting and storing. you can either bring it to the foodbank Mondays to Fridays between 10am and 12noon or to contact us to arrange for us to collect it. 
• Give any information for the newsletter or blog to us, email it to warehouse@barrow.foodbank.org.uk
• Encourage fundraising! Fundraising ideas are on the website but they're just a starting point - contact us if you have any ideas
• Let us know how the foodbank is/is not working for your church or organisation. Feedback is important as it raises standards
• And for church reps, please encourage your church to pray for the foodbank. For those who work there and for all the people we serve. 

VOLUNTEER TRAINING


Volunteer training has been organised for Monday 30th April in the drop-in centre at Abbey Road Baptist Church.
Training for voucher holders will take place in the morning, this should take around an hour, and drop-in centre volunteers in the afternoon. A light lunch will be provided for both groups at 12.30.

If you'd like to volunteer but aren't available at drop-in opening times, please still contact us as warehouse hours are varied and flexible and no ongoing commitment is needed.


Warehouse Progress

The warehouse is now fully decorated and shelving ordered. It's so exciting to be able to say this. The team is slowly but steadily climbing the mountain of tasks that need to be done in order for us to begin operating and we're getting ever closer. Huge thanks to all those who've volunteeered and expressed support, please continue to tell others about us.