Chesterfield Foodbank is a registered charity that was started in June 2013. It is a franchisee of the Trussell Trust, (1400 foodbanks across the UK) and provides emergency food packs for people in crisis. The foodbank has six distribution centres at Brimington, Hasland, West Bars, New Whittington, Grindleford, and Loundsley Green. We also have a warehouse at Sheepbridge and 2 vans.

Local agencies issue foodbank vouchers to people in crises who cannot afford to buy food. The agencies know the people and can best decide whether they need emergency food. The foodbank does not normally make these decisions.

The people could be family, friends, neighbours and colleagues and include:

• Unemployed people seeking work
• Low paid, often part or full time workers
• People who are sick and people with special needs
• People recently discharged from hospital or other institutions
• Adults and children in difficult family situations
• People dealing with benefit changes
• School children on holiday and not receiving free school meals

The foodbank vans are used to transport donated food from drop bins in supermarkets, churches and libraries to our warehouse. Volunteers at the warehouse weigh and sort the food into groups and best before date order and store the sorted food in cardboard trays on pallets. The food is picked at the warehouse and delivered to the centres.

The people bring the vouchers to the foodbank centres and our centre volunteers give out the food packs. In addition to receiving the 3-day supply of emergency food, the people are greeted warmly, offered a hot drink and a snack, and given the opportunity to find a listening ear and discuss their situation so our trained volunteers can signpost to agencies for specific help and advice.