Foodbank volunteers, council leaders and representatives from voluntary organisations and businesses gathered at a conference entitled ‘Beyond The Foodbank: Tackling Poverty’ at the Kerith Community Church a fortnight ago.
Over the course of its five years of existence, volunteers have seen the popularity of the foodbank increase steadily, so much so that they now see one new family need its help each day for food parcels.
In the last 12 months alone, the foodbank dished out 33,798kg of food to 4,314 adults and children. However, the church’s director of social justice Andy Jackson raised the issue that seeing the foodbank as a successful facility was also highlighting the growing issue of poverty within Bracknell.
He said: “In measuring the success of the foodbank in those terms, we are measuring our level of failure in tackling poverty locally. One new family in Bracknell per day comes to the foodbank. Could we have a target that by 2019 the need has reduced so significantly that we only open once a week?” Among the speakers was Lorraine Collins, out of school support and intervention manager for Bracknell Forest Council, who said that even though Bracknell was painted as a prosperous and healthy town, there were still pockets of deprivation around the town.
She said: “If you peel away the surface, we have pockets of deprivation – if we lift children out of poverty we make a better future for everyone.” She credited the success of the council’s children’s centres and family focus programme for starting to assist families, as well as the Credit Union set up by Bracknell Forest Homes for supplying an alternative to loan sharks and payday lenders.
To round off the meeting, delegates agreed to improve on communication and collaboration between themselves so that groups have a better understanding as to what is available across the borough and can point families in crisis to the best places for help.
Mr Jackson concluded the meeting by saying he was delighted with the progress and that the group would meet again in five years’ time.
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