Whitchurch Food bank seeks volunteers as management retires

Whitchurch Food bank has said it is looking to set up a succession plan for new volunteers as it faces challenging times despite demand being as high as it has ever been.

Managers and Chair of Trustees, Alan and Chris Scutt have said they intend to retire from the food bank next year and are looking for new staff to take over their position as continue to face high levels of need.

“Demand isn’t dropping and it has risen considerably in the last two and half years,” said Alan. “On average we are seeing 23 to 28 people per week. That’s referrals some of those could be families of three four or five.

“You compare that to five years ago when we maybe saw eight to people per week you can see the difference.”

MORE NEWS:

• Whitchurch welcomes 'futuristic' McDonald's as restaurant reopens
• Whitchurch rapist who left victim 'in constant fear' jailed
• Whitchurch man Finley Wood jailed for causing Felix Davies death in Cheshire

Along with this, they are facing challenges due to financial constraints caused by two years of inflation.

“It would be fair to say that donations - until the country started to go through its financial crisis- with higher inflation, food prices rising and fuel- were holding well,” said Alan.

“In the last year we have bins in Tescos, Sainsbury’s and Wem Co-op. If you take the Tesco’s bin, that’s probably 18-19 percent down formt eh previous year. Sainsbury’s is about 8.5 percent down. Wem Co-op is about 11 percent down.

“If you take that along with other donations from individuals and groups they’re 20 per cent down. We are still getting financial donations and we are able t use that to identify where we need to start purchases.”

Help support trusted local news

Sign up for a digital subscription now: www.whitchurchherald.co.uk/subscribe/

As a digital subscriber you will get

• Unlimited access to the Whitchurch Herald website
• Advert-light access
• Reader rewards

However, after 12 years, Alan and Chris have decided to stop and are now looking for someone to take on the responsibility next year and added they would ideally want someone to start after Christmas to learn the ropes before they retire in the summer.

“I’m the Chairman of the Trustees and we have been looking at the last couple of years at succession planning,” said Alan.

“We have around 40 volunteers on our books but nine of those are over 80, a lot are in their 70s and this is difficult in a situation where there is a lot of shifting and moving around.

“We are going to need to recruit additional volunteers. We are looking at alternative options if no one comes forward and says ‘I can manage this for you’.”