Who are we?
Swale Foodbank have been running for over 10 years serving the areas of Sittingbourne, the surrounding villages and the Isle of Sheppey. We have over 50 volunteers and 4 staff members who run the organisation and we work closely with people, just like you, to support our local community in various ways.
Impact
Anyone can end up in a situation where they need our support. That is why it is so important that we remove as many barriers as possible for those needing our help. Last year we helped over 6000 people with an emergency food parcel. Many of those people never expected to need a foodbank to help them survive - nurses, teaching assistants, paramedics, business owners to name just a few - these and many others all needing our help.
Why are we crowdfunding?
The Cost Of Living Crisis has affected so many people all across our community. Each week, we now hear from several individuals or families saying 'But I am the one who donates to you - how can I now be needing your help?'
Many of those who once supported us with regular monthly donations have had to stop donating in order to manage financially, so we are now helping more people than ever before AND we are seeing less donations coming in! Donations can be both food/stock items or financial - we are seeing drops in both of these. As well as this drop in donations, we are experiencing increases in many of our overheads, along with everyone else in the country.
The shelves in this picture are normally full to the brim - we are now struggling to get anything on our shelves!
How we’ll spend the money raised
We need money for many things at the moment - we need to cover our overheads, including renting our warehouse and paying the usual monthly bills. We also need to purchase stock to cover the increasing gap between donations coming in and the amount we have going out.