Ian Wright, Manger of Salford Foodbank explains how Salford Foodbank will now operate it's voucher system.
Dear colleagues
We are living through an unprecedented crisis, with increasingly fast-moving changes and restrictions aimed at keeping all the population as safe as possible. This is primarily through social distancing, Along with many other businesses and charities this enforces a major change in the way that we operate.
However, because our charity exists to offer food to families in a short term crisis, and where they are powerless to help themselves, the current situation requires our existence and provision more than ever.
So, this coming week we are moving away from asking clients to come with vouchers to foodbank centres, and instead moving primarily to a 'home delivery' service, operated entirely from Mocha Parade (our main warehouse).
This is how it will work:
Agencies will issue vouchers for clients as before, but will email them to the foodbank, rather than give them to the client. We will process the vouchers remotely and create a 'Delivery List'. This will be sent to Mocha Parade on a Tuesday and Friday morning , where the Food Parcels will be picked and Addressed. At lunchtime drivers will come and pick up 4 or 5 Food Parcels and deliver them to the clients home, leaving them on the doorstep.
This method of operating offers the highest number of clients being served by very few volunteers, the vast majority of whom will not have any kind of personal contact with another person.
This week is a time of transition, so to allow time for you Agencies to change the way you issue Vouchers, we will operate normally out of GO Church on Monday afternoon (1-3), and then out of Mocha Parade on Tuesday afternoon (1-3).
After that, all future Foodbank sessions at our 4 Centres will be suspended until further notice.
Our first Home Delivery sessions will take place on Friday 27th March,and will continue on Tuesdays and Fridays until further notice.
This is what you will need to do from Wednesday 25th March:
1. When you engage with your client, you will continue to issue Foodbank Vouchers exactly as you do now, either on paper or electronically.
2. Instead of giving the Voucher or Voucher Number to the Client, you MUST email it to Salford Foodbank on : info@salford.foodbank.org.uk
(a paper voucher should be scanned or photographed and attached to the email).
3. The deadline will be 9.45am on Tuesday or Friday mornings. There will be no exceptions.
4. We will validate each Voucher (and advise you if there are any problems), and arrange for the Food Parcel to be picked at our Warehouse at Mocha Parade on a Tuesday or Friday morning, then collected by one of our Driver Team and delivered between 1 and 3 on a Tuesday or Friday afternoon.
Obviously, if you identify a need for a Food Parcel after 10 on a Tuesday or Friday, it will be 2-3 days before the client will get any food with this new set up.
Therefore, we are in the process of setting up a brand new Distribution Centre in partnership with the Locality Team of Salford Council based at Swinton Gateway. We hope to be able to offer emergency food parcels from here in exchange for vouchers between 10am and 10pm Monday to Friday (7.30pm Friday). This will be operated entirely by Council staff and not foodbank volunteers. This is due to go live around 1st April but we will inform you when it is all finalised.
When this is in place, it is up to you whether you give the Voucher to the client to redeem at Swinton Gateway, or email it to the foodbank where it will delivered on the next delivery day.
We hope you will not find this significant change in the way we operate too difficult,and we hope that, in spite of the restrictions we are all working under, this will meet the needs of our community without endangering personal safety and health.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Iain Wight
Foodbank Manager
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