Food Poverty Network Pilot Project Evaluation

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Content Page Number Background and Summary 4 Pilot activity 5 Table of collaborative groups 7 Key finding and recommendations 8 Next steps 11 The phases of the pilot project 12 Activity of the Food Poverty Collaborative

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Resource needs and gaps for Food Poverty Collaborative

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Branding the collaboration into a formal partnership

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Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats to the Collaborative

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Conclusion 34

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Background Northamptonshire Community Foundation as part of its core activities takes a Community Leadership role in addressing needs and concerns that impact Northamptonshire. Last year it convened a meeting with several organisations working directly and around the issue of Food Poverty1. The outcome of the meeting was a commitment to pilot testing a co-ordinated response to addressing Food Poverty and improving infrastructure in addressing what is an increasing concern. The Foundation was also able to match a Donor to invest in the pilot phase.

Summary

The purpose of the pilot was to initiate a collective and joined up response to the increasing issue of food poverty in Northamptonshire.

The initial investment was £40,000 supported by ten organisations covering Northampton, Daventry, Corby, Kettering and East Northamptonshire. Links were made to map and identify other complimentary services through the duration of the pilot.

The Foundation in its Community Leadership Role noted towards the latter end of 2011 increase national and local media around the rise in food banks and food poverty.

Some key facts and trends included the following: The Trussell Trust identified in 2011-12 a rise in the number of food parcels being distributed by 100% having increased from 61,468 in 2010-11 to 128,697 in 2011-12 financial year.2 Furthermore 1 in 5 people currently live in Poverty in UK3 and 1 in 7 children live in poverty in Northamptonshire.4 The result has been the emergence of a Food Poverty Collaborative that will look to strategically tackle the issue of food poverty across Northamptonshire, share skills, knowledge and learning and work together locally.

1 Food poverty means that an individual or household isn’t able to obtain healthy, nutritious food, or can’t access the food they would like to eat. http://www.foodethicscouncil.org/topic/Food%2Bpoverty 2 The Trussell Trust: http://www.trusselltrust.org/resources/documents/UK-foodbanks-double-numbers-fed-in-one-year1.pdf 3 Insititute of Fiscal Studies: http://www.ifs.org.uk/comms/comm124.pdf 4 Save the Children: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/feb/23/child-poverty-britain-map

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Northamptonshire Community Foundation & Lord Compton

Northamptonshire Community Foundation as part of its core activities takes a Community Leadership role in addressing needs and concerns that impact Northamptonshire. Towards the end of 2011, it convened a meeting with several organisations working directly and around the issue of Food Poverty. The outcome of the meeting was a commitment to pilot testing a co-ordinated response to addressing Food Poverty and improving infrastructure in addressing what is an increasing concern. The Foundation was also able to match a Donor to invest in the pilot phase.

Compton Family Fund Lord Northampton and his son Lord Compton recently set up a named family fund with the Foundation. The family were undecided on the area of need they wanted to address with this funding, so the Foundation took Lord Compton on a ‘donor journey’ - taking him on project visits so he could see first hand a variety of groups and causes. Lord Compton then decided to commit some of his funds to supporting groups tackling food poverty within Northamptonshire, generously donating over £40,000 to be committed to this pilot activity. Pilot activity The pilot phase was carried between November 2012 and January 2013. Elements of the pilot included addressing the following:

1. Increasing the capacity of local agencies to respond to an increasing demand for food parcels 2. Reduce agencies working in isolation and establish a food poverty network building on good practice 3. Building relations with local supermarkets to manage waste food distribution 4. Mapping services and creating a directory 5. Training programme for cooking and nutrition for vulnerable younger and older people 6. Funding for transport and storage 7. Gathering data and evidence to formalise a Food Poverty partnership to attract further investment

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Co-ordination of the Pilot Activity The pilot phase was co-ordinated by a local professional with a background in managing food poverty programmes and aimed to deliver the following:

• Mapping the services and creating a directory for agencies and the public including services directly working on Food Poverty

• Look at branding the collaboration into a formal partnership and developing a partnership agreement and constitution, logo and strap line

• Capturing good practice through the pilot for future funding applications • Contacting and writing to local supermarkets on behalf of the collaborative partnership • Raising the profile of the collaborative partnership with other agencies that compliment its aims e.g. Citizens Advice Bureau,

Northampton Hope Centre and the Allotment Association; press and local radio The Collaborative Groups The following table summarises the groups that took part in the pilot programme to strategically address food poverty. It identifies the type of activity that each delivered.

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FP initiative / Organisation

(primary) Food Poverty Activities plus added value activities

Abington Work Club /

Christ Church - Northampton

Meal plus One – Cookery Course Links with Monday Job Club and some food parcels

Blackthorn Good Neighbours – Northampton East

Family anti-poverty support and ‘thrift skills workshops’ incl. ‘Frugal Christmas’ – cooking, making decorations and presents

Corby Foodbank ♦

Hope Centre Foodbank in three wards Debt & money advice/support and hospitality

Daventry Food Bank

Vineyard Church Food Bank – food parcels distributed around Daventry district IT & Employability training, debt and money management support, hot meals and Christmas in a box

The Food Supply / East Northants Community Services

Food Bank Debt, money management advice and support benefits, employability and welfare. Cornfield Café - hospitality

Cooking On A Budget

Hope Enterprises - Northampton

To fund cookery workshops and food awareness course within a homeless centre working with people that are homeless to build pathways to employability and reduce food poverty

Northampton Food Bank Central Vineyard

Food Bank – food parcels distributed through 6 faith/community venues around Northampton. Training of budget coaches mentors and Christmas in a box appeal

Meal on a Budget course Springs Family Centre - Northampton

Fitting of a kitchen to enable mentoring of young people and adults to cook on a budget Food parcels to local vulnerable

Food Transport project

AGE CONCERN – Northants

Provide a fleet of ibuses plus volunteer driver network to support food donation collections food parcel delivery

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DONATION LOGISTICS - Daventry Area Community Transport

Providing transportation support of food donations to Daventry Food Bank and vulnerable elderly in the Daventry district

Four other providers of Food Poverty activities in Northamptonshire

Projects outside the Pilot but interviewed about their food poverty work Day Centre Services Daylight Centre - Wellingborough

Hot Lunch / Food parcels Debt, money management advice and support benefits, employability and welfare (esp. ex-Service personnel)

Brackley Food Bank Food Bank – food parcels provided on referral, twice weekly at Town Hall room

Kettering Food Bank St. Jude’s

Food Bank Debt, money management advice and support benefits, homelessness support and Café - hospitality

Towcester Foodbank ♦ Foodbank– food parcels provided on referral, twice weekly

Key Findings and Recommendations Findings Ten projects were involved in the pilot and an additional four food poverty projects were also interviewed. Data on the organisations and their work was collected and discussion had with key staff / volunteers. All the projects provide a non-judgemental and client-centred delivery, with reasonable access (venues and times) although welcome the option to increase provision, if resources allowed. Within the pilot, there is the equivalent of 3 full-time paid staff and 6 full-time unpaid staff, the projects rely heavily on their local volunteers, with over 129 individuals working between 2 – 20 hours per week on average across the organisations taking part.

All but one of the eight organisations (six taking part in the pilot and two later identified) involved in providing food parcels had been established for more than a year and a few for over two years. The Trussell Trust works in partnership with Corby Foodbank (and Towcester) and provides a range of support – set-up systems, training, website and access to food resources from their key partners (Trussell work with Tesco). Food bank organisations are predominantly formed from faith communities; mainly geographically linked, coming together to deliver anti-poverty initiatives at the local level. Their ‘services’ provide essential food support and most also have advice, debt and money management assistance – all have a desire to ensure service users do not become dependent and as such wish to further develop the ‘holistic support’ and opportunities to develop the skills and personal resources available to improve life chances.

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In relation to the actual food donations, most rely on a good and generous amount of donations at local level – supermarkets and shops, friends and supporters especially within the church community and each autumn. The harvest festival collections from schools and churches provide signification and often ‘tailored’ donations to all the projects. In the future development of relationships with the food industry in the county and in looking at smarter working, the organisations are keen not to ‘alienate and disenfranchise’ their local givers. They value and recognise that people like to be able to make a difference in their local community and to feel that their donation is doing just that.

The four ‘training and life-skills’ projects, all addressed different demographic groups but had the aim of increasing food and cooking on a budget skills and two had ‘aspirational enterprise’ development – using the learnt skills of creating meals to further up-skill the participants to produce meals for ‘sale/ sharing’. Hope Enterprise has already set up to provide a catering service and Abington Work Club via Christ Church would like to develop a community support meal service, on a small and very local scale. There are opportunities for all four of the projects to learn together and develop training programmes that provide small, supportive steps for the participants but also for the organisations to develop into enterprising activity. In fact across the whole pilot there are potential enterprising initiatives which would serve to develop ‘pathways to progress’ for the service users and potentially support the fund diversification for the organisations; improving their sustainability.

Through the collaborative activity over the three month pilot phase a consensus has been established that has the aim of the collaborative in the short term responding to food poverty and in the long term developing activity that builds pathways to employability and independent living. Key Recommendations The aims of the collaborative and pilot programme have been to achieve the following:

1. Raise the profile of the issue of food poverty 2. Bring together a report and develop the network to lever further investment from future funders 3. Develop a sustainable model following on from a pilot phase

Based on the need to sustain the development of the collaborative model to tackle food poverty in Northamptonshire the following recommendations should be taken forward:

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Widen membership • Widen network to all groups addressing food poverty in Northamptonshire including allotment association and ‘growing’ groups (those growing food)

Capacity building volunteers network • Capacity building for volunteers through Local Infrastructure organisations (e.g. volunteer centres) to build targeted volunteer recruitment and sustain volunteer network

Formalise partnership with centralised administration support

• Most of the organisations taking part have limited time for external meetings and promoting and marketing the activities of the collaborative. New investment and funding should look to employ a staff member to facilitate the network and carry out duties on behalf of it e.g. writing to local food industries and sending press releases to local press and media contacts, capturing data and keeping the directory up to date

Levering further investment and strategic sources of support

• Potential future funding and investment from the Social Action Fund, Big Lottery Fund will support the strategic development of the collaborative further

• The Collaborative should also investigate local business support

Working with local food industries • The Collaborative needs to explore ways of engaging with more supermarkets and local food industries in order to tackle some of the structural issues pertaining to food poverty such as food waste but also look to encourage the corporate social responsibility of local food industries

Investigate other models of good practice • Trussell Trust, FareShare and Food Cycle have information and good practice that could support and inform activity and campaign at the local level

Dedicated profile raising • The Food Poverty Collaborative will be successful in garnering public support through engaging local press and radio and bringing case studies and ‘real people’ stories in the frame – this will enable effective lobbying

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and influencing; again this will need some form of centralised administrative support for the network

Next Steps

The next stages of the collaborative in going forward are as follows:

Partnership development Northamptonshire Community Foundation to facilitate the agreement from current participating organisations on the formalising of the collaborative – partnership agreement template to be agreed; branding of the partnership through strap line and logo

Publish and share pilot evaluation and findings The evaluation report is to be made a public document and shared with existing and potential stakeholders

Levering further investment and funding Northamptonshire Community Foundation is currently exploring and identifying potential investment opportunities to develop and sustain the collaborative model for tackling Food Poverty in Northamptonshire

Widen the network for collaborative activity Promotional activity to increase and encourage membership from other groups tackling food poverty

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The Phases of the Pilot Project Mapping the services and creating a directory for agencies and the public including services directly working on Food Poverty During the field work and research phase an initial piece of work to support the activity of the Food Poverty Collaborative was to map the services and bring this information together in the form of a directory. This is now available online to the public at: http://www.ncf.uk.com/Training/FoodPovertyDirectoryNorthamptonshire Capturing good practice and resource gaps Within the Collaboration, members provide a diverse range of food poverty initiatives and some are able to offer ‘added value’ through their organisations own resource or network. Thus the support in communities across the county is varied but instrumental in address real need at point of contact. Activities identified include:

- Access to hot meal/ s

- Food parcel for clients, mainly via locally-run partner agency, referral voucher scheme

- Homelessness shelter and services

- Activities and support for people isolated, with poor mental health and adults with learning disabilities.

- Partnership working with local agencies (housing and welfare), some food retailers and other voluntary sector partners

- ‘Pathways of Progress’- activities aimed at moving service users nearing to alleviating the causes of poverty and need: -

- Cooking on a Budget

- Job-Search and Employability skills support

- Debt-management and advice service

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Type of collaborative groups Faith Communities

Across the county, a range of faith-based networks had discussed the need to address growing poverty issues – Churches Together, Faith Works, Vineyard Churches all had identified and been delivering ad-hoc support, including to organisation supporting vulnerable people. There are 6 organisations that took part in the pilot phase that are faith-based groups:

• Abington Work Group – Christ Church

• Daventry Food Bank – Daventry Vineyard Church

• Rushden Food Bank – East Northants Faith group

• Northampton Food Bank

• Springs Family Centre

• Corby Foodbank

Almost all these organisations co-ordinate their anti-poverty work with either time ‘found’ from stipend pastoral staff (church pastors/ vicars) or with a very part-time worker (approx 4 – 10 hours p/week). All the projects provide staffing in excess of 30 hours p/week to organise and run the anti-poverty work, most food banks are twice weekly and hot-meal provisions are daily. These services and a vast amount of the food and other resources are supported by volunteers, church members and local networks of friends, schools and businesses. Additional resources to support the physical running of the projects, is provided by donations, in-kind (buildings/ printing, etc) and ad-hoc grants mainly from within the ‘Christian’ funding network.

Although the faith organisations are separate and independent, they have experience of working together and across the range of sectors to ‘deliver and achieve a social outcome’. Their shared ethos and values are the drivers for change and making a difference in communities. Many also come under a charity status and governance. This shared understanding is harnessed to ‘overcome’ both internal and external conflicts of interest. It is this approach and attitude which is one shared by all the pilot organisations that will be essential to maintain in any development of the collaboration. Charities & Community organisations

Within the pilot there are four projects that fall within the non-faith community/ charity sector:

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• Age Concern- Northamptonshire

• Blackthorn Good Neighbours – Family support (linked through Surestart)

• Daventry Area Community Transport (DACT)

• Hope Enterprises – Cookery courses for Homeless

Although these organisations are not faith-based, they all have links with the local faith communities and both of the food / meal service providers receive donations from faith communities.

All the organisations are involved in partnership working with other agencies, across sectors. Age Concern and DACT are established transport/access providers, mainly working within geographical remits; although this pilot has enabled a greater reach to their services, in the support of the food banks. Both organisations have paid staff co-ordinating community transport projects supported by volunteer drivers. This pilot has enhanced the offer to specifically support the food poverty work of other collaboration members. Both charities are familiar with working to Service Level Agreements within both formal and informal partnership frameworks.

Hope Enterprises has a specific remit and client base – working with homeless. It runs as part of a wider network of homelessness provision in the Northampton – Oasis House. The pilot enabled clients to learn cookery and budgeting and have an opportunity to find out about the Hope Enterprises catering initiative; should they wish to move on to develop skills and work in the enterprise. This is one project that has a direct ‘Pathway to Progress’ built into the existing provision.

Other identified groups that didn’t take part in the pilot phase

The Daylight Centre participated in the pilot later than the other projects but had been struggling to deliver aspects of its food poverty work, with a increase in demand. The Centre attracts significant numbers of ex-service personnel and people with learning disabilities to its lunch provision (4 days p/week). Its food parcel provision is supported by Rushden Food bank and direct donations from the public and local business. The Centre is part of an informal network of agencies supporting people at risk and vulnerable. There are many ‘capital resource needs’ if the Centre is to continue to meet the current need and be able to deliver winter comfort provision.

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Day Centre Services Daylight Centre - Wellingborough

Hot Lunch / Food parcels Debt, money management advice and support benefits, employability and welfare (esp. ex-Service personnel)

Brackley Food Bank Food Bank – food parcels provided on referral, twice weekly at Town Hall room.

Kettering Food Bank St. Jude’s

Food Bank Debt, money management advice and support benefits, homelessness support and Café - hospitality

Towcester Foodbank ♦ Foodbank– food parcels provided on referral, twice weekly

Local authority provision and support for activity Within the collaboration, a number of partners have already developed some level of support from their district councils. Mostly it relates to building use, either limited or specific free hire (Brackley Town Hall and South Northants Homes) or peppercorn rent for a building - Daventry Food Bank and Daylight Centre. Notably both the latter are at risk as the building are in ‘re-development’ areas and are planned to be demolished in the near future. There is an opportunity to develop a strategic provision to tackle food poverty with the planned changes in the welfare system and in recognition of the current activity of the voluntary and community – charity sector. The anti-poverty provision needs to be locally-accessible, flexible and tenacious to ensure it is able to meet the needs of the most vulnerable and at risk. Northamptonshire Community Foundation and local Food Banks are currently exploring this investment opportunity with Northamptonshire County Council’s civil servants for the Social Action Fund.

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Trussell Trust partnerships

Trussell Trust Foodbanks©♦ provide a minimum of three days emergency food and support to people experiencing crisis in the UK. In 2011-12 foodbanks fed 128,687 people nationwide, in 2012-13 they anticipated this number will rise to over 230,000. Rising costs of food and fuel combined with static income, high unemployment and changes to benefits are causing more and more people to come to foodbanks for help. The Trussell Trust (TT) partners with churches and communities to open new foodbanks nationwide. In Northamptonshire they are working in partnership with:

- Corby Foodbank – since 2011 - Towcester Foodbank - since July 2012

Trussell have enable a fast set-up for the Foodbanks and provide resources, administrative systems, advice and most importantly a recognised name which provides an open door to their network of food industry partners, to access food donations at local level. One of the main Trussell Trust partners is Tesco. Local Foodbanks pay a set- up charge and annual fees for the partnership and are ‘tied in’ for three years initially, with the option to continue or to run independently thereafter.

Both the Northamptonshire based TT supported Foodbanks feel without the TT support it would have been harder and taken longer to get up and running and the systems TT provide are useful. However they are also aware that they grow their own networks and relationships locally to enable greater ‘buy in’ and to work with other anti-poverty initiatives and cross sector/ denomination groups. Also the two Foodbanks are quite different due to organisational structures and support and their demographic reach and profile. There are ‘restrictions’ that their partnership with Trussell Trust but importantly in terms of the development of the ‘process for collaborative working across the county’ the lead workers – Adam in Corby and Mark in Towcester are keen to remain involved but obviously need to be able to feedback to their own organisations as the work progresses.

For more information on how Trussell Trust supports the network of Foodbanks http://www.trusselltrust.org/resources/documents/Press/General_Foodbank_Appeal2012_NORDO.pdf

♦ Trussell Trust partnered Foodbanks

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Activity of the Food Poverty Collaborative Corby Foodbank

Pilot Activity: Increase capacity to distribute food parcels and support referrals through additional staff time, racking and petrol. Food Poverty activity FoodBanks in 3 communities of Corby; Runs a Foodbank from the main hub – Hope Centre, plus two additional outreach sites on local estates ~ Beanfield (Mondays 1- 3pm) and Studfall Road (Wednesday’s 10 – 12pm). The organisation aims to open fourth site on Kingswood Estate in early December 2012. Additional related activity – adding value to the Food Poverty service.

- Signposting to money management and debt counselling

- Hospitality and social support to reduce isolation

Referral process - Phone, local health and welfare and community agencies

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Abington Work Group – Christ Church

Pilot activity: Working with older people to educate and support meals on a budget

Food Poverty activity

‘Meal plus One’ – 6-week Cookery course

Participants, many of whom have little or no experience of cooking a meal for themselves, and are jobless. Learn to cook a dish on a budget (approx £2.50) share lunch together and have a meal to take away (for another time, or to share with someone). Also reduces social isolation and boosts inter-personal skills.

Additional related activity – adding value to the FP service.

• Links with the Monday Job-club (11.30 – 12.30pm)

• Encourages local food retails to support initiative. New local support donation site with local shop – Annilla Accessories (Birchfield Road).

Referral process

• Self-referral and local community organisations, partners in Churches Together network

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Daventry Food Bank – Daventry Vineyard Church

Pilot activity: to purchase industrial pallet stacking for storage space and cover Food parcels costs Food Bank activity Collection of donations of food to provide food parcels for vulnerable people around Daventry district. Donations from public can be dropped off during open hours. Links with local referral agencies and voucher system. Additional related activity – adding value to the FP service.

- Linked in with Christian Against Poverty ‘Money and debt counselling service’

- Employability support with in-house ‘Go-Online’ centre and volunteer trainers

- Some donations are also sent out to troops in Afghanistan Referral process

- Local health, community welfare agencies, self and family referrals. Including: Women’s Refuge, Bromford, MayDay Trust, Mental Health Team and DACT network.

- Collection and additional welfare support provided through Vineyard Church team

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Rushden Food Bank – East Northamptonshire Faith group

Pilot activity: To increase capacity through food parcel and transportation costs.

Food Poverty activity FoodBank activity – collection of donations for food to provide food parcels for vulnerable and meals for homeless in the East Northamptonshire area. FoodBank runs Monday & Friday (9am – 2pm), for collection of parcel at 50p. Additional related activity – adding value to the FP service

- Money management and debt counselling, benefits advice, employability support

- The Cornerfield Café provides hospitality and social support to reduce isolation Referral process

- Local health service and welfare agencies, self and family referrals

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Northampton Food Bank

Pilot activity: Food Bank administrator, fuel and food distribution costs, printing of food bank vouchers, training of budget coaches mentors, Christmas in a box appeal

Food Poverty activity

FoodBank activity – collection of donations of food to provide food parcels for vulnerable via network of support hubs around Northampton (see website for days and details). Works with over 40 referral agencies and voucher system.

Additional related activity – adding value to the FP service

• Linked in with Christian against poverty ‘Money and debt counselling service’

• Christmas In a Box – Request for donation of items to help with Christmas for parcels recipients

Referral process

• Local health service and welfare agencies, self and family referrals. Collection and additional welfare support provided through network of community churches

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Springs Family Centre

Pilot activity: The fitting of a kitchen within the centre that would enable the organisation to mentor young people and adults in being able to cook on a budget and provide additional support.

They are currently working with 100 young people across Northampton town. Staffing would be at no cost to the project and would include 1 to 1 mentoring aswell as basic accreditation and move young people on to better cope with life.

Food Poverty activity

‘Meal on A Budget’ – 7-week Cookery course

Young people participate in short course; many of whom have little or no experience of cooking a meal for themselves and learn to cook a dish on a budget (approx £2.50) share lunch together and have a meal to take away (for another time, or to share with someone). Also reduces social isolation and inter-personal skills.

Additional related activity – adding value to the Food Poverty service

• Works with Northamptonshire County Council and their ‘basic Skills course’

• links with local business’s to provide placement / mentoring to young people

Referral process

• Local health service and welfare agencies, self and family referrals

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Age UK Northamptonshire

Pilot activity: Petrol costs in return for the use of their fleet of vehicles

Food Poverty activity Fleet transport (minibuses) plus volunteer driver network to support food donation collections and food parcel delivery. Additional related activity – adding value to the FP service. Referral agency for food poverty ‘money and debt management’,

- Holistic support for 55+ age group

- Cooking for One (incl. cookbook)

- ‘Get Set Go’ – health and wellbeing course for over 55’s

- Drop –in and Café plus Adult Care services Referral process, Over 55’s

- Phone - local health and welfare agencies, family referrals

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Blackthorn Good Neighbours – Family support

Pilot activity: Address the issue of Food Poverty in Northampton Eastern District with a focus on families.

Food Poverty activity A range of food activities; aimed at families having fun, learning new ‘thrift’ skills together. Parents and children cookery sessions – Frugal Christmas ~ cooking, making decorations and presents, family and community Christmas events. Additional related activity – adding value to the FP service

- Surestart ‘Young Mums cookery course’ - with link to provide opportunity for mum’s to ‘use their new skills, helping plan, prep and cook food for the events.

Referral process

- Phone - local health and welfare agencies, family referrals

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Daventry Area Community Transport (DACT)

Pilot activity: To offer a flexible service for food poverty response in Daventry and District working with organisations such as Vineyard Church.

Food Poverty activity: Providing transportation support of food donations to local FoodBank – Vineyard and other Food Poverty Collaboration partners and vulnerable clients in Daventry district. Can provide some additional delivery, via pool of volunteer drivers to rural locations in west, south Northants, incl. Harpole, Kislingbury and Towcester. Additional related activity – adding value to the FP service.

- Promote the project in DACT Christmas Newsletter to DACT members, volunteer drivers, etc

- Access to additional support through the countywide community transport network -

Referral process - Local health service and welfare agencies, self and family referrals

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Hope Enterprises – Cookery courses for Homeless

Pilot activity: Cookery workshops and food awareness course within a homeless centre working with people that are homeless to build pathways to employability and reduce food poverty. Food Poverty activity Cooking on a Budget course for clients. Provides opportunity to enhance life-skills and also see if this is area of work, they may be skilled and interested to develop. For some may be opportunity with commitment to ‘move on to Hope Catering Service’ Additional related activity – adding value to the FP service.

- Hope Catering is part of social enterprise, providing ‘hand up’ option to join their quality catering service. Referral process

- From Oasis House (partnership members)

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Resource needs and gaps for Food Poverty Collaborative The following table lists the quantifiable needs (in relation to funding/ resources) of the Collaboration partners that are involved in direct delivery of food poverty work. All the groups’ resources will be under pressure if number requiring support continue to rise.

Organisation Staffing Venue Logistics

Other

Fulltime Or Eq.

P/ time Vols

Springs Family Centre 1 1 -2 6 New kitchen already provided under pilot

Northampton Food Bank 1 2 – 4 20+ Bigger storage Transport for donations

Hope Enterprises 1 2 4 OK

East Northants Food Supply 1 2-4 28 Improvements Transport of donations Better storage

Daventry Food Bank 1 2 12 New venue Building due to be demolished late 2013

Corby Foodbank (TTptnr) 1 2-4 30 OK Transport for donations

Blackthorn Good Neighbours 0 2 4 OK

Abington Work Group 0 1 4 Subject to next project ie: enterprise/ training development

Kettering Food Bank 1 2 18 Needs some improvements

Daylight Centre 1 2 10+ New venue Building not fit for purpose – no capacity for improvement

Towcester Foodbank (TTptnr)

0.5 1 12+ OK Subject to changing needs

Brackley Food Bank 0.5 1 10+ Town hall -access

Sustaining a volunteer network No two food poverty projects are exactly the same in the network. There are many aspects of the work that use the same ‘set of skills’ but because each project relates to their local area, there is a need to respond and deliver a service that matches that local need. However some of the key roles across the Food Banks in the county are:

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Donations Teams - Drivers – fit and reliable drivers are needed to collect donated food from partner supermarkets, etc in cars or minibuses

and deliver to Food Bank hub. - Sorters – sort the food and place in the storage for next stage (date, quality, type) - Parcels packers – put together the parcels for vulnerable people, based on identified demographic (single, small family,

large family – or similar). Some parcels are prepared for people with specific health needs. - Delivery drivers – make deliver to house-bound or to specific projects

Admin & Client Support - Volunteers with office / administration skills to support the voucher scheme, provide admin back up to the client support

worker and staff phone enquiries and donations - Employability, Welfare and support volunteers to assist with aspects of activity supporting people access to employment,

housing, benefits, etc.

Community Meals - Helping to provide hot meals within the centres. Some projects may be involved in supported learning around cooking

on a budget. Staffing

Across the county the diversity of the food poverty projects is reflected in the type of provision and the staffing. There are three main types of provision:

- Cookery courses (targeted and specific to demographic need)

- Food Banks and Food Bank+ where additional anti-poverty work supports the food bank activity.

- Community-based support for vulnerable, including homeless and families at risk, i.e. Day Centres.

The discussions and data collected from the partners identifies that the food poverty projects are co-ordinated and run primarily on a volunteer resource. Even with the pilot funding available, most of the organisations opted to use the funds to increase direct provision or improve capital resources to meet the needs of the direct provision, rather than on staffing. This is not to say that there was no need for paid staff. Almost all the projects administrative and client support staff were working at capacity before and throughout the pilot. This was particularly evident in the Food Bank+ projects; where they are involved in provide advice, admin support with debt and support in a range of welfare issues.

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Across the projects the staffing levels are:

Funded (in this pilot)

Equivalent of 3 posts

Volunteer (unpaid)

Equivalent of 6 posts

129 volunteers

Storage

There was a need for a specific heading in relation to storage as the majority of the food poverty initiatives are or encompass some element of provision of food parcels. This entails collections of donated foods and collected foods from supermarkets (both donations and customer in-shop collections), schools – harvest festivals and ‘events’, faith organisations and individual private donations.

Capacity of the organisations to collect, sort and store and then prepare the food parcels ebbs and flows is an issue. Collections from supermarkets and food retail shops (bakeries, etc) can be daily at local level to periodically/ monthly for large warehouse collections from the big supermarkets. The food banks have a list of ideal foods they would like to receive but with the larger donations there is always the opportunity and expectation that the food bank with take their surplus, short-dated and similar foodstuffs. This can mean that the organisation has to store goods that are not necessarily ‘ideal’ for use in food parcels (i.e. bottled water) but could be useful to other partners and more use at other times.

Food banks in Northampton and Rushden have an immediate and pressing need to expand their capacity for storage (incl. shelving) and in Daventry because they will be have to move from their current location within the next twelve months. Obviously one of their primary considerations will be suitable and accessible storage.

In Brackley the Food Bank operates from a ‘loaned room’ in the Town Hall, but storage is an attic in a community church. Although not ideal, these facilities cost the group nothing and demonstrate the ‘buy in’ by other sections of the community.

Other non-Food bank projects find small spaces and keep the amount of food stock to a manageable level, perhaps sufficient for a couple of weeks, based of the current consumption in their local community.

The members of the network already ‘share and support’ on an ad-hoc level where possible and the Food bank schemes continue to support a range of local anti-poverty initiatives and community groups working with vulnerable and clients ‘in need’. This could be co-ordinated better with staff resources to develop and logistics for storage, exchange and distribution.

For the Food banks the sort of space –medium sized industrial unit, that Daventry Food Bank have with stacking shelving and small admin space is perhaps near to the ideal for this element of the project. However, often such spaces are outside of urban conurbations and access for clients may be a problem. Therefore all aspects of the service would need to be weighed up when seeking alternative storage. This is an area where local councils and private landlords; perhaps through the Northamptonshire Enterprise Partnership could look to make an active contribution to their local anti-poverty development.

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It is however important to note that a key element of local donations to the food banks and other projects, is that people like to know that their gifts and needed and used locally. Therefore any development would need to ensure this ‘value’ is not compromised.

Referral Systems and Dependency

Prior to the pilot, all of the organisations involved in this food poverty work were already involved in working with people that are vulnerable, in need and at risk of one or more ‘indicators’ of poverty (unemployment, fuel, food, poor health, etc). There are voucher schemes but these are not consistently used and understood by all. There needs to a system and training across all organisations involved in anti-poverty work. Additionally, it would provide a chance to look at all areas of support provided directly to vulnerable and in need.

The system needs some flexibility, currently the food banks and other community-based providers are able to respond relatively rapidly, due to the attitude and commitment of their volunteers.

This is an area where ‘staff exchange’ or cross sector training may be beneficial to improve the system and get it working effectively and efficiently. Changes within the benefits system over the next few months will hopefully drive the development of better working relationships and shared systems for referral.

The Collaborative members are adamant that an aspect of the development of their provision (both independently and collectively) should be to identify ways to ensure ‘dependency’ is minimised. There already exists some ‘checks and balances’ within their referral and support systems but additional resources needs to be identified to support signposting and advice services to be available to all, alongside the food parcels.

It was agreed that the collaborative needed to build people’s independence and capacity to move on from support. Supermarkets and Food Industries The work around engaging further with supermarkets and local food industries consisted of 6 meetings across the collaborative. It was identified that a long term aim of the collaborative going forward would be to work with and lobby local supermarkets to give surplus food to other projects locally and develop a partnership based on a model of good practice The average supermarket throws out £3000 worth of food everyday. The groups partaking in the Food Poverty Collaborative also agreed it was important to ensure that as charities we were not merely taking away the costs of supermarket disposal of food. Each of the organisations has differing relations with different supermarkets – East Northamptonshire has links with Sainsbury and Vineyard Church Daventry has links with Tesco.

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The Collaborative also discussed food ethics, waste management and corporate social responsibility of supermarkets. Future collaborative activity would involve actively engaging further with supermarkets and organisations such as Made in Northamptonshire possibly supported by a central administrator. There would be opportunities to link in with national campaigns such as those led by national charities e.g. FareShare to tackle food poverty and food waste. Branding the collaboration into a formal partnership The group are currently exploring a draft partnership agreement and name, strap line and logo in order to take the collaborative forward beyond the pilot phase. It was agreed that the network would be a ‘loose’ collaboration model and would act as a banner or umbrella body for local organisations. The biggest strength of it being a ‘loose’ collaborative would be the freedom to focus on frontline delivery and that the banner, strap line, logo and being part of a network would add enormous credibility through the number of organisations working together in different localities. There are a number of models around collaborative working that could be adopted and the core purpose would be to enhance opportunities for all groups, raise the profile of their work and bring in funding. A number of funding programmes would favour partnership activity. As the collaborative moves forward issues along the way will be inevitable as with any partnership but the important thing would be to sign up to the concept and to work through anything as the partnership progressed. The key aims and objectives that the collaborative have agreed to are:

- Identify and build the best practice in supporting the work of the partners, around food poverty

- Develop a strategy to support the work and the partnership development

- Secure funding and resources to enable the work to continue, in a sustainable way

- Raise awareness of food poverty issues and the work of the partnership members

- Develop partnerships with external agencies and organisations to support the delivery of the aims of the partnership

This model will assist with the following:

- Shared ownership

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- Community-led involvement - Focus for all – within the ‘partnership’ and to external agencies / clients/ funders - Professional identity for the ‘group’ - Branding for recognition

It is important to include key words that will help ‘locate’ the group … ‘Northamptonshire’ and it’s primary activity, working around ‘Food poverty’. However, there is some significant stigma for some potential beneficiaries around receiving ‘charity’ and being identified as ‘in poverty’. In fact some of the people and families the group hope to be able to help would possibly be put off seeking/ asking for help as they do not see themselves as being in need or ‘poor’. This is especially true during this current economic climate, new food parcel recipients have included individual and families with working parents on low income, not necessarily in receipt/ or entitled to benefits. This group is likely to increase over the next quarter due to:

- Benefit Changes in relation to family tax credit - Increasing number of redundancies in public and private sector - Government proposals to remove the ‘Hardship Fund’ available through the JSP agency - Other welfare reform benefits

Positive elements to consider that it may be worth including / alluding to, in the naming of the group are:

- The added value food poverty work that most of the members provide - The ‘opportunities for beneficiaries to ‘participate’ in the delivery of some elements of the activities, i.e. as volunteers or

just helping ad-hoc Ideas for names that are being discussed are as follows:

1. Northamptonshire Food Poverty Collaboration 2. Northants Community Food Poverty Network 3. Northants Food Support Group 4. Northamptonshire Food4All 5. Northants Community Food & Advice 6. Community Advice & Food Exchange – Northants (CAFÉ) 7. Food, Advice Community Together – Northants (FACT)

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Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of the Collaborative Strengths

- Sustainable activity based on volunteering - Agreed collaborative ‘vision’ - Strength in Numbers – raising the public profile of

tackling food poverty - Mapping of service increasing referrals and awareness

of service provision - Increased demand for services and activity - Localised provision tailored for services

Weaknesses - Lack of centralised administration support for

network - Most groups are limited on time resources to meet up - Limited training opportunities for volunteers - Limited relations with local food industries - Vouchers system not standardised

Opportunities - Future investments opportunities through the Social

Action Fund, Big Lottery Fund and existing Donor - Opportunities for developing further enterprising

activity e.g. Hope Enterprises – training clients; seek advice and support from University of Northampton

- Standardise training and up skilling across volunteers - Save time, energy and resources through working

together at the local level

Threats - Overly formalised partnership lacking the flexibility for

a range of groups to take part - Unsuccessful investment bids - Competition from other emerging partnerships for

funding and resources

Next stages The next stages of the collaborative in going forward are as follows: Partnership development Northamptonshire Community Foundation to facilitate the

agreement from current participating organisations on the formalising of the collaborative – partnership agreement template to be agreed; branding of the partnership through strap line and logo.

Publish and share pilot evaluation and findings The evaluation report is to be made a public document and shared with existing and potential stakeholders

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Levering further investment and funding Northamptonshire Community Foundation is currently exploring and identifying potential investment opportunities to develop and sustain the collaborative model for tackling Food Poverty in Northamptonshire.

Widen the network for collaborative activity Promotional activity to increase and encourage membership form other groups tackling food poverty.

Conclusion Strategic philanthropy and the Collaborative Model This pilot activity is an example of strategic philanthropy and collaborative working. Northamptonshire Community Foundation, due to its core business and activity, was able to quickly identify and match a donor to an emerging and increasing need across Northamptonshire. The idea of strategic philanthropy is to invest in a model of addressing an overall concern rather than individual organisations with a view to the model of activity eventually being able to sustain itself outside of the Foundation’s initial investment. The benefit of strategic philanthropy for a donor is that it addresses a specific concern and looks to develop a sustainable response. It also means the donor gets to see fairly quick results from their investment. The collaborative model of activity enables organisations to work collectively to enhance each organisations’ ability to respond to an increasing need for tackling a specific issue at the local level. The share knowledge and expertise helps shape the activity and work taking place and capacity building of those organisations in terms of best practice and funding. Working together in a collaborative model structure adds credibility as it evidences a diverse range of organisations coming together to tackle a problem co-operatively. It creates more time, energy and resources and ensures strength in numbers which builds confidence and strategic messages for influencing and lobbying stakeholders and the general public. It builds a shared ‘voice’ which increases its ability to develop a platform to influence public opinion and policy. One of the many benefits of the collaborative has been connecting groups and developing and facilitating partnership activity at a localised level e.g. Vineyard Church Daventry have been working with Daventry Area Community Transport to raise awareness within Daventry and District of the Food Bank services and also to provide additional transportation to and from the Food Bank services. This is just one example of a range of collaborative activity within the pilot phase. What it illuminates is the range of opportunities for groups to work together rather than in isolation.

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Future funding and investment There are major changes to the external environment at local and national level which will impact directly on the development of the food poverty collaborative across Northamptonshire. The Northamptonshire County Councils plans for a Social Fund and the diversity of governance of the existing members means that there would need to be specific work to identify the best working model to suit strategic and operational development. This has been identified as a ‘loose’ collaborative and discussion are currently under way with the Food Poverty Collaborative and with representatives from Northamptonshire County Council.

In addition this discussion will need to inform the development of future funding bids and diversification of funding. One possible way forward is accessing enterprise and business planning available through the University of Northampton- social Enterprise. The building of operational food donations with the food industry sector of Northamptonshire should encompass strategic organisations such as Northamptonshire Enterprise, Made in Northamptonshire and a range of locally based community growing groups.

Northamptonshire Community Foundation has also had initial discussion with representatives from the Big Lottery Fund and Community Foundation Network on rolling out a pilot programme national across sub-regions so that Food Poverty is addressed strategically across the Country rather than through just responsive grant giving. Community Foundations with a Community Leadership role are ideally placed to facilitate this activity based on their independent brokership, grant making services, local knowledge and strategic philanthropic activity.

The greatest investment area following on from the pilot that is required is in staffing the development of the organisation to be able to fully engage with the development process and to invest in their valuable and committed volunteer base. There is some capital resources required but without the staffing to support the operational work, this is a secondary consideration.