Hi everyone,
We thought we ought to give you a bit of an update from us here at North Plymouth Foodbank, in Estover, on how we are operating and what measures we are putting in place during this almost daily, if not hourly change in guidance in relation to Covid19.
The Trussell Trust are continually monitoring the situation throughout the network and are updating us as necessary – we will take our lead and guidance from them as well as from our Trustees here at North Plymouth Community Church.
We are following all official recommendations with regards best practice and hygiene measures. We would respectfully request that you follow any instructions or guidance given by our volunteers whilst here at our Foodbank, as we only have everyone’s best interests at heart.
We are also asking anyone who is showing any symptoms of Covid19, or if you have had close contact with anyone who has, not to visit us and if you do require a parcel and have a voucher to please pass it to a friend or family member who can then collect on your behalf. We are unable to offer a delivery service.
As it stands at the moment we are still open during our normal hours between 1000-1200 on a Tue and Thu, but with a very restricted service.
What we are doing, is changing to a “Drive-Thru” style system for giving food parcels.
We are requesting clients to first park their car and that anyone who accompanies a client remains in the vehicle and that only the person named on the voucher or their representative comes to us with it.
We will not be inviting clients inside or offering any other hospitality and will instead be using our covered porch area for clients to pass us their voucher and then return to the car, bringing it round, when and where indicated by our volunteers. We will then load your vehicle for you.
Please do not bring your vehicle forward until after you have passed your voucher to us as you would be blocking the only way out of the car park for other users as there is a one way system in operation. Please look out for the one way and no entry signs as you enter the car park and proceed with caution.
Our guidance to Referrers for assessing our clients’ needs has not changed, we are here for people who are in crisis and do not have the funds to be able to provide food for themselves and their family and as ever we rely on our Referrers to assess this need on a case by case basis.
Please see our website link for further details of how our referral system works as we can only give food parcels to anyone with a valid foodbank voucher issued by one of our Referrers.
Here is the link:-
https://northplymouth.foodbank.org.uk/get-…/how-to-get-help/
We would like you to know that our stock levels are good at the moment thanks to your past and present continued support although we will be keeping our website up to date with anything we are particularly short of.
If you would like to donate it would be very helpful to us if you could donate via our collection points in Asda (Estover), Tesco (Roborough) or the Co-op (Plympton Chaddlewood), rather than visit us at the Foodbank. We are keeping an eye on these and collecting on a regular basis. Your co-operation at this time would be much appreciated.
The link to our list of items we are short of at any given time and full details of our donation points is here:-
https://northplymouth.foodbank.org.uk/give-help/donate-food/
We obviously don’t want to alarm anybody, but on the same note, we feel that you should be aware of what measures we have in place to minimise the risk to our clients, referrers, volunteers and any other visitors to our Foodbank here in Estover.
All of the measures we have in place are to help keep risks to minimum levels for everyone and, therefore, enable us to continue to provide our services for as long as we possibly can.
Please also bear in mind that this is an ever changing situation and if we have anything important to pass on we will, of course, let you all know as soon as we reasonably can.
The best place for up to date information is on our Facebook page. ‘Like’ our page to receive updates to your news-feed as they happen and please feel free to share the information with anyone who you think may benefit from it or who may not be on social media. The link to our Facebook page is here:-
Thank you for your continued support and patience at this time.
Keep safe.
From all the team here at North Plymouth Foodbank
Web: http://www.northplymouth.foodbank.org.uk
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 07759 258889 (only during the hours of 1000-1200 on a Tue and Thu)