Dinner & Speaker Peter Barnett, Foodbank Medway

Thirteen million people live below the poverty line in the UK, with individuals going hungry every day for a range of reasons. 

There are four Foodbank centres across Medway which enable clients in Strood, Chatham and Gillingham to access the service in their own communities. The food is donated by schools, churches, businesses and individuals donate non-perishable, in-date food to the foodbank. ‘Supermarket Collections’ are one of the main ways that food is donated.

Our speaker Peter Barnet fully embraced the Foodbank system in Medway, coordinated by the Trussell Trust, where storage was situated in the Medway City Estate and not easy to reach.  They stored to serve 8 Foodbank centres in Medway, where a minimum of one could be available Monday to Saturday, some large and others, such as the NET in Weedswood, were small and found a 2.5 hour opening difficult to cope with more than 6 families.  Anybody wishing to receive free food and other natural weekly shopping demands (toothpaste etc) needed to be interviewed before receiving a voucher; which was prescriptive about options available.  Vouchers and collection were undertaken at alternative sites, mostly a church of all denominations and Peter provided various stories about the journey of food to storage and appropriate route to acquire.  All provided useful scenarios and secure systems against misuse.  However the numbers over the years had risen from one every couple of weeks to 6/7 families a week at the NET; a worrying trend and Peter ended clearly indicating he would be pleased if Foodbanks shut down immediately for lack of demand.  Clive provided the members positive thanks.