The Taunton Foodbank board of trustees are looking at policy and strategic measures to ensure that the foodbank is able to continue to meet the needs of people in our community.
They have been considering how they can best do that whilst ensuring the safety of their volunteers and clients whilst also following the Government rules on social distancing, on leaving our homes and on accessing food.
The guidance is clear that we should all aim to have our food delivered.
In line with other foodbanks we have decided that the best way to meet these aims is to change the way in which our clients receive their food and to move to a delivery only service from Monday 30th March.
As a result all the distribution points will close on or before Friday 27th March.
This is a temporary measure to deal with the current health emergency that we face. We will return to our normal working practices as soon as it is safe to do so.
Sue Weightman, our Manager, is working with Somerset West and Taunton Council and has secured agreement with them for the provision of one of their vans with a driver as follows:
Food parcel delivery:
Taunton – Tuesday and Friday afternoon
Wellington and Wiveliscombe – Thursday afternoon.
Alternative arrangements will be in place for Langport which is in a different Local Authority area and again we will update you as things change.
These arrangements will be kept under review and alterations made when and where required.
We are enormously grateful to SWAT Council for their support and help in this matter.
Thank you all again for your continued support of the Foodbank and your understanding in these difficult times.
Please be assured that these arrangements are temporary and will cease as soon as safe to do so. The personal contact we have with our clients under normal circumstances is a vital part of our work and we want this to resume as much as you do. We look forward to the time when this will be possible.
The referral process will remain the same – clients need to ring one of our referral agents such as CAB, Job Centre, SWAT Housing or Benefits, social worker, health visitor, PFSW etc etc who will then email a request through to us. This will be processed in the usual way then delivered to the client on either a Tuesday or Friday (depending on when request is received) or to Wellington and Wiveliscombe on Thursday.
If there are any queries do not hesitate to email on [email protected] or phone on 07761 524216.