Emergency food provision update

Sadly, from the beginning of June and for the foreseeable future, we will no longer be running a food bank in Leicester.

The Charity Link food bank was launched in June 2013 in conjunction with Leicester City Council. The food bank was a continuation of Charity Link’s support of local people experiencing food poverty, which had previously been addressed for many years via the provision of emergency food vouchers. The food bank has been run highly successfully for the past two years with essential support for infrastructure costings provided by Leicester City Council.

Whilst Charity Link, with the support of the local community, successfully established a cost effective, well-run and well-stocked food bank provision for those in food poverty in Leicestershire, we are extremely disappointed that during a recent highly competitive bidding process for Emergency Food Provision Tender and Associated Project Management by Leicester City Council, the provision was offered to another provider and as such we will no longer be in receipt of essential funding to continue this provision presently.

Our core work of providing essential items to improve quality of life, including beds, cookers and clothing to those in need remains unchanged, and at this time we will be returning to our historically successful method of providing emergency food vouchers to those who are ineligible or unable to obtain food provision from other agencies. We will, as always, continue to review our services to ensure that we are able to meet the needs of the most vulnerable in our local community.

Whilst we are extremely disappointed that we will not, at this time, be continuing to develop a food bank provision, we would like to wish the new provider, Action Homeless, every success; it remains imperative that the many vulnerable people living locally receive the support they need. Charity Link has been and will continue to work with both Leicester City Council and Action Homeless to help ensure a smooth transition and to reduce any impact to those who so desperately need food bank support.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all members of the team at Charity Link involved in developing and running the food bank and our amazing team of dedicated volunteers, without whose support the Charity Link food bank would not have been able to offer such a supportive and caring service. We would also like to thank every individual, business and organisation who has so generously donated to the Charity Link food bank since its inception. We are extremely grateful for your support.