BanktheFood, a grassroots initiative dedicated to supporting local food banks, has teamed up with the Trussell Trust to enhance the provision of crucial supplies, ensuring continued assistance to individuals facing poverty in their neighbourhoods. This collaboration aims to streamline the process for people across the UK to identify and donate the most needed items to their nearby food banks.
Addressing the Growing Need: Trussell Trust and BanktheFood Join Forces
As the demand for food bank services intensifies nationwide, resources are stretched thin, with donations often falling short of meeting the growing need. The Trussell Trust has forged a partnership with BanktheFood, a charitable app that empowers users to engage directly with local food banks, receiving real-time updates on urgently required items whenever supplies run low. The app even offers tailored shopping lists based on the user’s location, enabling them to select items with the greatest impact on their community and seamlessly integrate them into their shopping trips.
Since its inception in 2021, BanktheFood has garnered significant support, boasting over 48,000 active users who contribute food items and toiletries to both the Trussell Trust and independent food banks nationwide. Free for all users, the app facilitates the donation of up to 7,000 items per week. With this strategic partnership, BanktheFood aims to expand its reach, targeting an additional 100,000 food donations for food banks within the next year.
“We are thrilled to partner with the Trussell Trust. It will allow us to provide more food to people who are struggling to get by and support our partner food banks and charities. Together, we can help ensure that fewer people go without the essentials each day in the UK.”
Emma Spring, co-founder of BanktheFood
Trussell Trust: A Pillar of Support in the Fight Against Poverty
The Trussell Trust, an anti-poverty charity, operates a vast network of over 1,300 food bank centres throughout the UK, distributing nearly three million emergency food parcels to individuals facing hardship last year. In addition to supplying food and essential items, the Trussell Trust implements community-based programmes offering advice and support to mitigate the need for food bank assistance in the future.
This year-long partnership will involve the Trussell Trust collaborating with BanktheFood to enhance the app’s development, raise awareness among the public, and promote its adoption by food banks across the Trussell Trust network.
“This partnership with BanktheFood will make it even easier for people to support their local food bank and donate the items that they need the most. Food banks in the Trussell Trust network are having to buy more food than ever before as donations are not keeping up with the sharp increase in the number of people needing to seek support and the BanktheFood app will help to ensure that every item donated will make a real difference to people facing hardship in that community.”
Emma Revie, CEO of the Trussell Trust
Take Action Today: Support Your Local Food Bank with BanktheFood App
Here’s how you can help:
- Download the free BanktheFood app, find your local food bank and help them get the items they need most.
- Follow BanktheFood on Facebook @bankthefood or Twitter @BanktheFoodUK
- Check out my previous articles on how to help your local food bank with the reverse advent calendar at Christmas time, but remember, you can do this and help at any time of the year!
- Discover how to use food apps to donate items to food banks for free.
About BanktheFood
Emma Spring is the co-founder of BanktheFood and runs the charity day-to-day. A former teacher, she cares passionately about fighting poverty as she has seen first-hand the impact it can have on children and their families.
The BanktheFood app was developed by Daniel Owen and his digital multimedia company Mustard New Media. Daniel and his team donate their time and expertise to maintaining the app as part of their corporate social responsibility.
Find out more at their website: www.bankthefood.org
About the Trussell Trust
We exist so we can all be free from hunger. Together, we support more than 1,300 local food bank centres across the UK, providing practical support for people facing hardship. But emergency food isn’t a long-term solution to hunger. People need food banks when they don’t have enough money for the essentials. It’s not right that anyone needs a food bank to get by, and we can change this by ensuring everyone has enough income to eat, stay warm and stay dry. That’s why we also work with communities across the UK to change the things that push people to need a food bank.
Our network of food banks is supported by almost 12,000 churches, as well as many community groups, local businesses, schools and more than 28,000 dedicated volunteers. Together, we are thousands and thousands of people, from communities across the UK, working together towards a more just future. We bring together data and evidence from food banks and the people who need them across the UK, gathering powerful information on the state of our society. Our research projects give the most in-depth picture of who needs a food bank and why, helping us co-create and advocate for solutions that will ensure all of us have enough money to afford the essentials.
Find out more at their website: www.trusselltrust.org