News
3 Sep 21
Our welcome centres are re-opening from 20 September
We’re delighted to be re-opening our face-to-face food bank welcome centres from Monday 20 September, after almost 18 months of delivering emergency food to people’s doorsteps – and more than 16,000 emergency food supplies delivered across Wandsworth borough. We’re adding two new welcome centres in neighbourhoods where relatively high numbers of people and families are […]
25 Jun 21
Wandsworth Council listens to our calls for increased local lifeline
We’re delighted that Wandsworth Council has listened to calls from local community groups like ours, and has this week announced its local lifeline for residents in severe hardship in the year ahead. We believe local welfare assistance like the Wandsworth Discretionary Social Fund (WDSF) can provide a lifeline for residents impacted by loss of work […]
15 Jun 21
Blog: Welcoming people seeking refuge and sanctuary
It’s Refugee Week 2021, a chance to celebrate the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary with us in the UK, including in Wandsworth. At Wandsworth Foodbank, we regularly support refugees, migrants and people seeking sanctuary who’ve been pulled into destitution, often due to restrictions of the government’s No Recourse to Public […]
13 May 21
New report finds extreme poverty pushes people to food bank doors
New research reveals people forced to food banks at start of pandemic faced extreme poverty, with just £248 a month to survive on after housing costs. Today, we welcome the Trussell Trust’s State of Hunger 2021, an expert study shedding light on groups of people across the UK disproportionately affected by hunger and the drivers behind food bank […]
1 Feb 21
‘The boost to Universal Credit has been a godsend’
Today the All Party Parliamentary Group on Poverty published its report calling for the government to keep the £20/week uplift to Universal Credit, and extend it to legacy benefits (which didn’t receive this Covid-19 boost). The report recognises that UK unemployment benefits are some of the lowest in Europe, and suggests that ‘…if the uplift […]
20 Jan 21
Foodbank centre leader helps vaccinate local people
We’re so proud of our colleague Sue who is volunteering as a Covid-19 vaccinator in a church hall in Tooting. In normal times, Sue leads our food bank centre in Furzedown. But while our centres are closed and we’re doing home deliveries, Sue is using her skills as a retired hospital consultant and retired vicar […]
7 Jan 21
Find help if you’re facing hardship this lockdown
If you’re facing hardship and can’t afford to buy the food you need this week, we’re here to help. There are three main ways to be referred to our Foodbank: Many local schools, GPs, children’s centres, mental health teams, housing associations can refer local people to Wandsworth Foodbank, so do ask someone that you’re in […]
7 Jan 21
We’ll keep supporting local people through this new lockdown
As we face rising Covid cases across the capital and a new lockdown, we know food banks like ours will sadly be busier than ever. Across Wandsworth, we’ve been supporting a growing number of local households who’ve been swept into severe hardship by loss of jobs or hours, illness, and benefit payments that aren’t covering […]
24 Dec 20
Christmas Eve at the food bank
We wish no one needed to use a food bank, but there was a lot of joy today to be able to ease a little of the hardship and stress for more than 70 households across Wandsworth borough, who’d been referred to us this week. One mother we delivered to texted us this afternoon to […]
23 Dec 20
A brief look back at 2020 in our new report
Covid-19 has shone a harsh light on already-existing causes of poverty and food bank use. We hope this new report, Covid-19: A view from the Foodbank, will help to shine a light on how we can help protect people in Wandsworth from further hardship, together. Since the beginning of the pandemic, we’ve seen the need […]