The Cupboard Is Nearly Bare At The Local Foodbank

Call for help from Chiswick residents, as demand has tripled in recent months

Hounslow Community Foodbox has appealed to Chiswick residents to urgently donate food as it is very short of supplies, due to rising demand for its foodboxes.

There are also increasing requests for help from people living in Chiswick - at a rate of about fifteen a month. As they are only open two mornings a week, this is considered quite a high demand.

The foodbank, which is based in Brentford, says demand in general has tripled over the past year, but has increased so much in recent weeks that at one stage they had very little food on their shelves. Volunteers went out and raised money to buy food at shops themselves as donations fell so low.

Hounslow Community Foodbox was set up in 2013 because the Council provided an unused community centre as a storage and collection point. However one of their referral partners is Chiswick Citizens Advice Bureau and they have agreed that they can have a drop off point in their office in Chiswick Town Hall. This will be effective from Wednesday 31May and will mean that Chiswick residents will be able to donate to them locally.

The reason for the unexpected shortfall is because the demand from referral partners has more than trebled in the last four months and is far in excess of what they anticipated.

A spokesman said, "We are able to provide support only three times in any twelve months. This means that the surge in demand is overwhelmingly coming from the referrals of new clients."

FoodBox operates on a voucher system, with recipients being given a voucher by one of FoodBox’s referral partners. Recipients can then exchange this voucher for a food package.

FoodBox’s referral partners are professionals or volunteers working in the community such as children’s centres, Citizens Advice Bureau, GPs, housing associations, Jobcentre Plus and London Borough of Hounslow Housing Strategy and Solutions, and Adult Social Care and Children’s Services.

Referral partners complete a FoodBox voucher form for the recipient, emailing it to FoodBox and giving a copy to the recipient.

Food packages contain non-perishable essentials such as pasta, rice and tinned food. The food package should last the recipient and their household around three days.

May 27, 2017