Information for referral partners

Before you refer someone who is a Wandsworth resident to our foodbank, please consider helping them apply for vital emergency financial help from Wandsworth Council first. These are grants, not loans, so people won’t need to pay them back.

For instance it only takes 5 minutes to apply online for a crisis grant, and the person you’re supporting could receive the following support up to three times in a financial year:

• £30+ per person supermarket vouchers – enabling them to buy the food they most need.
• £15/£30 prepayment fuel vouchers (or extra supermarket vouchers if someone pays for energy by direct debit or quarterly bill)

Wandsworth Council has also created an online Cost of Living hub which has lots of very useful information for you and for the people you support.

How to refer to Wandsworth Foodbank

If you still need to refer a person or family to us, please use our online e-voucher system (available to referral partners who have registered with us). If you’re not registered as a referral partner, please contact [email protected] or call us on 020 7326 9428.

There is no standard limit to the number of times you can refer someone in severe hardship to us, if they do not have enough income for food. However, food banks are a short-term emergency provision, and so please bear that in mind and only refer when necessary.

Please do speak to us about a specific case if someone is likely to need longer-term support, by emailing [email protected] or calling 020 7326 9428. We can then ensure together that the person/household is receiving all support possible to solve their financial hardship, with the aim of them having enough income for essentials like food and therefore reducing their need for emergency food bank support.

When you create an e-voucher, you need to:

1. Select collection or delivery: Ideally most people will collect their food from one of our six welcome centres across Wandsworth borough, where a warm welcome and further support and advice is available. However please tick ‘delivery’ and then select ‘Wandsworth FB Warehouse: Deliveries’ instead of a food bank centre, if someone is unable to collect because of disability or illness. Please note we only have a limited number of deliveries on Tuesday and Friday afternoons. 
2. Provide person’s contact number: Please provide a working phone number for the person you’re referring. It’s helpful for all referrals as we will send people a confirmation text message if they’re collecting food. Contact details are essential for deliveries – without one we can’t arrange the delivery!
3. Fully complete ‘reason for referral’: Please provide as much detail on the referral as possible, including about what’s causing lack of income for food and essentials. This helps us offer the best support and advice to the person you’re referring, as well as providing essential anonymised data for local and national policy work.
4. Obtain consent re dietary requirements: In the section ‘Notes regarding parcel requirements’, please obtain consent for us to store details about someone’s dietary requirements. This helps us continue to provide diet- and culturally-appropriate bespoke parcels while also being GDPR compliant.
5. Select which food bank centre: For collections, once you’ve entered someone’s details, you’ll see a list of the closest food bank centres to their postcode. By default the person’s closest food bank centre is selected. However please discuss this with your client, check the opening times are suitable, and ensure it’s a Wandsworth Foodbank centre (rather than one in a neighbouring borough). Please then book the person into the welcome centre that is best for them, and make sure they know where and when to visit.
6. Give the referral code to the person you’re referring:  Please give the completed single use referral voucher code to the person you’re referring, and ensure they’re clear about where and when to visit one of our centres. You can print, text, email or phone the 10-digit voucher code to the person you’re referring.

Please contact us if you have any questions or need further help or information.

 

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