23 Rotarians and  3 guests,  Alice Bates, Simon Pollard and the speaker for the meeting Sheila Ward from the Deal Area Emergency FoodBank joined President Elect David Lister for the weekly meeting of the Rotary Club of Deal at Dunkerley’s restaurant on Monday 06 March

The Secretary noted that 61 from our Club had applied to go to the St. George’s Night event to be held on 21^st April.

The weekly wine draw was won by Bob Joslin (which he gave to Sheila Ward – she will use the bottle as a raffle prize to raise funds for the FoodBank) whilst there was no 200 club draw winner this week.

Marlene Burnham mentioned that at the Past Mayors’ luncheon held at the Astor Theatre last Saturday she had met two visitors from Colchester who were both Rotarians from that area. They committed to Marlene that they would pay our club a visit when next in this area.

John Utting, David Lister and their wives had been to the Shuffleboard evening put on by RC South Foreland and that some £1000 had been raised at the event for the End Polio Now campaign.

Peter Rothschild reminded us that this week’s Race Night (Thursday 9^th) was in aid of the Deal Food Bank, and that we are expecting attendance at about 45.

Secretary John Utting introduced Sheila Ward from Deal Area Emergency FoodBank and she started by informing us that most of the 400+ Food Banks in the UK are part of the Trussell Trust.

(President Paul Robbins has nominated Deal Area Emergncy FoodBank as one of his major cahrities this year and the proceeds of this week's 'Race Night' (Thursday 09 March at the RMA) will be donated to the FoodBank)

Sheila Ward told us the Deal Branch started out four and half years ago, it has four local outlet centres (2 in Deal and 1 each in Sandwich and Aylesham) open rotationally every weekday, the FoodBank has an amazing group of 85 volunteers.

Food is only made available where the client in in possession of a voucher. The FoodBank relies on frontline agencies like the CAB, School Family Liaison Officers, Churches and the Salvation Army to issue the vouchers that entitle people to collect up to three food parcels. 

Again, the press would have us believe that anyone can simply turn up and receive free food – this is absolutely not what happens.

The FoodBank exists not only to give food to needy families – this is only part of the service they provide, which includes finding out why the family is in need and giving them access to agencies to alleviate and help their situation, such as debt relief and help to ensure they are aware of all help that is available, Sheila reminded us of the maxim ‘give a man a fish and you provide him with one meal, but give him the means to catch fish and you feed him for life’ 

One of the biggest problems families on benefits endure is the possibility of their benefits being ‘sanctioned’ – i.e. removed for a period of between a month and a year – most people on benefits rely on local bus services – if the bus is late and they then arrive late at their Job Centre interview, sanctions could and very often are invoked – thus a family with problems suddenly face their benefits being removed, with little choice other than to seek help from FoodBank

Deal Area Emergency FoodBank the only ‘Fuel Bank’ in Kent – able to issue Fuel Vouchers for families in fuel poverty - families in need are often unable to afford gas and electricity and certainly have problems being forced to pay the 25% surcharge on a pre-paid meter. (Fuel vouchers are paid for by an energy supplier from money they would have had to pay Ofgem in fines for poor service and overcharging!)

Sheila told us some 27% of children in the Dover and Deal area are classed as living in poverty, with Deal Area Emergency FoodBank feeding around 200 adults and children each month – unfortunately the number of people needing help is growing.