The Parish Trust has joined the Independent Food Aid Network (IFAN) due to the provision of its CARE Project, an independent emergency provision service of food, prescription collections, and pastoral support.
IFAN connects, supports and advocates on behalf of a range of over 300 frontline food aid providers and envisions a society without the need for food banks. At the time of writing, the network’s membership includes over 550 independent food banks while IFAN has been responsible for the identification of at least 1174 independent food banks across the whole of the UK.
A recent survey conducted by IFAN has revealed that, as inflation soars, independent food banks are struggling to cope with increasing pressure on their stock and finances. Independent food banks have seen dramatic increases in need for their services since the Autumn of 2021. In their latest survey, 168 of 194 independent food banks saw a drop in food and/or financial donations and with many having to dip into their financial reserves to pay for food or vouchers.
When examining other reports commissioned by IFAN that includes data from the Trussell Trust, we can see that The Parish Trust’s CARE Project is among the leaders in moving to receiving food parcel requests and referrals electronically and undertaking home deliveries. Another interesting finding is that more and more food banks are moving away from their 3 day parcel of food model to offer more support. Since our start in 2020 we have always delivered seven days’ worth of food to complement a service user’s own weekly shopping for each family member, both adults and children, including fresh and frozen items.
Our membership of IFAN will enable us to keep abreast of the latest news about food poverty in the UK and help us to ensure that we continue to provide the very best level of support to our clients within our large service area of over 50,000 people.
