We are surprised, to a certain extent, not to have seen a leap in demand for food over the past couple of months. It’s a little puzzling as to why this hasn’t happened. Perhaps there will be a spike in demand later when fuel bills start to hit. Attendance numbers remain pretty constant too – it’s a shifting population with different people each week but the numbers remain consistent.
Rye Foodbank has worked hard to provide more than emergency food. The food bank provides a range of welfare services and has focussed on developing these as much as possible. Each week we have a benefits advisor present so that clients can get benefits problems resolved in a face-to-face consultation with an understanding and constructively helpful expert. Teresa Williams, from Hastings Advice and Representation Centre, provides this brilliant service and some clients have regained independence as a result.
We also have regular access to family support practitioner, Gill Sutton, who provides dedicated expertise to unravel the most complex problems that have led members of our community into poverty and hardship. Many people who visit describe a problem that can have multiple causes and has become complex. Family relationships, for example, can breakdown due to bereavement, abuse, lone parenting, mental and physical disability. Gill will spend time getting to know families with these problems and help them develop coping mechanisms, help resolve their issues and improve overall wellbeing and life experience.
Housing issues in Rye and District contribute significantly to people’s struggles to live a reasonable life and experience well-being. If you are a tenant in premises that are covered in black mould with your children sleeping in damp rooms covered in mould this is deeply demoralising especially over a period of time. In one case, a tenant has been trying to have a severe mould problem fixed for more than a year.
The cost of housing in Rye and District prohibits many from seeking long term solutions to poverty. A move to a different area for example is impossible as no-one wants to swap a property with damp problems. Adult children can’t afford to move out of the family home as all affordable flats and cottages have disappeared into the commercial advantages of Airbnb. Even traditional tied cottages, where farmers employed agricultural workers housed in a farm cottage, have disappeared.
A massive thank you to all our wonderful benefactors and donors. No matter how large or small, everything you give Rye Foodbank is hugely appreciated. Everything directly helps those members of our community experiencing hardship.
If you, or anyone you know are in need of help, please contact us. If you are provided with food you would then be able to spend your money on paying bills. Just come. You don’t need a referral or a voucher.
We are open every Wednesday at the Baptist church hall, Cinque Ports Street from 1pm until 3pm. All are welcome.
You can email ryefoodbank@gmail.com. Phone us on 07526 349847.
Monetary donations can be sent to Rye Foodbank at Barclays Bank, sort code 20-54-25, account number 83501116, through the Jempson Foundation or cheques to Rye Foodbank, c/o 24 North Salts, Rye. If you donate via the Jempson Foundation and are a taxpayer, gift aid can be applied, thereby increasing the value of the donation by 25% at no cost to the donor. If you make a bank transfer, please do send us a message (via ryefoodbank@gmail.com) so we know who it is from and can send a receipt, if required.
Image Credits: Mags Ivatts , Rye Foodbank .