Dear friends and supporters of the West Somerset Food Cupboard,
I thought I would share some facts with you to help you understand the importance of the work we do and why we are so grateful for the support you give.
“Food poverty means not being able, or being unsure if you can, get enough good-quality food in a socially acceptable way.”
- One in five adults in Somerset, including those in West Somerset, are estimated to be experiencing hunger or having difficulty accessing sufficient food due to poverty or accessibility issues.
- In 2022/23, 7.2 million people in the UK faced food insecurity—2.5 million more than in 2021/22, according to the DWP.”
- In the 2023/2024 year, an estimated 8 million adults and 3 million children in the UK were facing food insecurity. This represents 15% of all UK households.
I think it is clear to us all that the scale of need is considerable, and the call to respond is more important than ever. Please continue to support in whatever way you can no matter how small, every donation makes a difference. We are here to help but this is can only be done by the generosity of our donors and the kindness of our volunteers.
Raise Money when You’re Shopping Online!
If you buy goods online, please can I ask that you look at the easy fundraising website. We have recently registered our charity on this site, and you can continue the support by selecting us as your chosen charity.
https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/west-somerset-food-cupboard
Easy-fundraising partners with over 8,000 brands who will donate a percentage of what you spend to your chosen charity. It won’t cost you any extra and will raise much needed funds for us. We have already received an extra £200 from supporters signing up, so let’s see if we can encourage as many of our friends and families to help us.
Pantry Update
The Tuesday Pantry continues to run at 40-member capacity. We are always looking for new sources of surplus food to share amongst the Pantry members, so please get in touch if you can help us with this, we like to offer a well-balanced bag so if you have any surplus, we are always grateful to receive items you do not require. We can work together to redirect good food away from landfill and onto local dinner tables.
Easter Eggs
Eggs that were recently donated were given to every pantry member for the 2 weeks of the school holidays. 45 families at the YMCA received eggs together with every bag that went out having chocolate Easter treats included. Thank you to everyone who donated. Can I especially mention the Minehead Golf Club who kindly collected many eggs on our behalf, and they were quickly distributed to many happy households, thank you.
This Month’s Shortages
If you can help with donations this month these are the items, we are in most need of:
- Pasta/Curry Sauce
- Individual puddings-jelly/custard/rice pudding
- Individual juice cartons
- Tinned Hot dogs/meatballs
- Sweet Treats
- Small tins of potatoes and vegetables
- Tinned Tomatoes
- UHT Milk
- Sugar
- Tinned fruit
- Savoury Crackers / Breadsticks / Rice-cakes
- Rice & Rice sachets
