The Well foodbank have been helping the community for a number of years now and we catch p wit them to fid out more.
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00:00So we're here at the Well Food Bank and Gary, this is your project?
00:04Yes, yes it is. Yeah, this is the Well Food Bank. It's been running for 18 years.
00:0918 years. So it's Wolverhampton. It started off originally where Gary?
00:12In King's Church, around by the West Park. We started off in a little small pink box.
00:17Yeah.
00:18And we outgrew the cupboard that we were using in there and then we moved into the boot factory.
00:23We were there for nearly two years and then we moved here about 15 years ago.
00:28And now we have three units.
00:30So you've got three units, but people think that, you know, because it's a charity, everything's just given for free,
00:35but you have running costs, don't you?
00:37We do have running costs, yeah, like everything else. We deliver the food to people, so we've got the running costs of the vans.
00:42We've got three employees that we employ now and also the overheads for running this, for the three units, so yes.
00:50So the rents on this place, different property owners and that, they change the rents,
00:55so you're having to scale back and condense to two units?
00:58Yes, yes, we are, yes. We're going to go moving from three units to two units from next year, yes.
01:04And that's not because demand's going down, that's because overheads are going up.
01:08Yeah, just the overheads are going up, yes.
01:10So how are you finding it? How many people do you think you're supporting with food then?
01:17The first year we fed 67 people, now we're feeding about 11,000 to 12,000 people a year and we cover the whole WV postcode,
01:27so it's mainly Wolverhampton, Bilston and Wensfield.
01:30That's just crazy, isn't it? That's crazy, mate.
01:33And I could hear you on the phone there chatting to someone earlier, you were saying about how it works, you get it via referrals?
01:40Yes, people have to be referred to us over the phone, so they have to come through one of the statutory agencies that we use in the town,
01:47like children's centres, job centres, CABs, we have referrals from the police, we get referrals from school teachers contacting us
01:54saying children are coming to school and they notice they're not having proper meals.
01:58We have about 100 agencies across the town that refer to us.
02:02And you were saying the job centres refer people, is that still the case or has that changed now?
02:07They've just stopped doing it over the last six months, they took a decision from all the food banks they wouldn't refer to us,
02:13so we did see a drop in referrals for a little bit, but now people have found other agencies across the town to go to, so it's picked up again.
02:21And that decision by the job centre to stop referring people, is that something you'd like to see reversed or does that not really affect you either way?
02:30Yeah, the big food bank, the Trussell Trust, I know they stood up against it sort of thing, asking why the job centre have done this.
02:38Because it makes it harder for people to get food then, because job centres normally their first port of call, they go along if they've lost their job,
02:46and the job centre would then signpost us to a food bank, so it's sad that they've done that.
02:52And are you finding you've even getting people who are in employment?
02:56Oh yeah, a lot of the people we feed are employed, it's not just people who have lost their jobs or are out of work.
03:01A lot of people are employed just finding it hard now with their bills going up and their rent, just finding it hard to put basic food on the table.
03:09What's your take, how can things get better? I don't see a way out of this.
03:17With rent being so expensive, housing being so expensive, then the energy bills, I think those two factors, unless they change, I don't see it getting better, do you?
03:25Well I think food parcels have become part and parcel of every part of life now, sort of thing.
03:31Most cities across the country have food banks and so I think they're here to stay sadly.
03:36But we are a Christian organisation, that's what it's set up for there, to help people, you know what I mean.
03:41So your donations, they come from where?
03:44All sorts of people, we have obviously churches collect for us, members of the public,
03:49Food banks are well publicised now, so people know about us, so they'll just turn up here, ring the doorbell and drop us off parcels of food.
03:57So it comes from everywhere and anywhere, and supermarkets have collection points, Asda, Sainsbury's, the Liddell's, Aldi, they all have little collection points.
04:07When people come off the tills they can drop a couple of tins into a container which help us.
04:12And this big pile here, this is what's left from the Harvest Festival?
04:17Yeah, yeah, yes, like from September to the end of October, we have the schools do the Harvest Festivals, it's been a good one this year.
04:24We normally get about six and a half tonne, this year we've had seven and a half tonne.
04:28So hopefully this will soon start to go down and then we'll start having the Christmas stuff, will start to come in beginning of December.
04:35Yeah, so this is the proof of the pudding for everyone that's rallied round during the Harvest Festival, this is where it ends up going to good causes.
04:43And if there's any one thing that you, you know, the golden dust to be donated, what would you like more of?
04:49Yeah, we don't need pasta and beans, I can fit a whole of Wolverhampton on pasta and beans.
04:56But anything other than that, toiletries we always run low of, tinned pudding, like fruit puddings, rice puddings, custard, jam, pasta sachets, rice sachets.
05:10Any food item really we'll use, other than pasta itself and beans, those are two things we don't need.
05:17And as a food bank as well, you actually support other little groups as well, don't you?
05:21I mean, we did a feature with Joyce at Manners Kitchen down in Heathtown, so you send a bit of food their way and different places like that.
05:28Yeah, when we get given some financial donations, we like to buy food from an organisation up north, they've got a great big aircraft hangar.
05:37And we buy pallets of food from them and we like to support other projects around the town as well.
05:42Part of our Christian faith is sowing stuff out to other projects and all across Wolverhampton, Bilston, Wensfield, some great little projects that just serve their local community.
05:51So it's nice to be able to go down there and donate them a pallet of mixed goods, you know, it keeps it going.
05:57And how many volunteers do you have involved in the well?
05:59We have about 50 to 60 volunteers.
06:02Wow, that's good going. Well thank you for all your hard work Gary, it's much appreciated by all the people of Wolverhampton and beyond, thank you.
06:08Well thank you, we thank them for their support and they keep it going.