Volunteer Party 2023
Once a year, the New Forest Basics Bank (NFBB) celebrates and thanks its volunteers at our annual party.
On a rainy Thursday in October over one hundred volunteers gathered at the Walhampton Arms pub. Excited chatter could be heard as volunteers arrived and the drinks flowed. Long pub tables enabled food bank friends to sit together and to meet new people. There are over 280 volunteers on our rota, yet ‘on shift’ at the Food Bank you only meet the 5 to 8 people who have signed up for the same time slot. The pub hummed with conversation and laughter!
Oli, our eloquent and enthusiastic Chairman, called everyone to order and kicked off his speech with a heartfelt thank you to all our volunteers. He also reminded us that everyone at NFBB is a volunteer. No one is paid for all their amazing efforts and hard work. We did for the first time have a paid summer intern, Annabelle, which worked out extremely well.
Next, Oli paid tribute to the fantastic efforts of our nine Trustees, some working diligently behind the scenes, others more visible, all essential to our operation. He also welcomed Sue Winnington as our new Trustee and thanked outgoing Trustee Jenny Rugman for her outstanding work on our charity finances. Oli also gave a special shout out to Sarah Richards who has been instrumental in securing more grants for NFBB.
A very special mention went out to the Becton Rotary and larder volunteers. For the first time some of these volunteers joined us for this party. Three times a week Becton Rotary members collect donations from Waitrose in Lymington. Each week NFBB supports larders in four locations in collaboration with FareShare and local volunteers. This scheme aims to help families and individuals by providing food and essentials in exchange for a small contribution. Citizen’s Advice Bureau and other organisations aim to signpost to the larders before referring people for a Food Bank parcel. NFBB also promotes the larders to its clients who are getting back on their feet, as a means of moving off the Food Bank.
Oli highlighted that the Food Bank van has made a huge impact over the past year. Critically it has enabled more bulk purchases of additional food, which has helped us to manage the average cost of a food parcel. Moreover, the van has transformed the nightly collection of surplus food from 5 to 7 supermarkets. We typically collect around 40-50 crates of surplus food. Our amazing greengrocer volunteers go through the crates on weekday mornings. Food deemed safe is distributed via food parcels, larders and pop-up events. Oli expressed his gratitude to Jane Overall and to all the volunteer van drivers for their hard work.
Christmas is around the corner! The inimitable Sue Winnington will be leading the charge on the Christmas Bags again this year. We will also shortly launch Reverse Advent Calendars. Last year this enabled us to send out 175 Christmas hampers. Nellie Rogers is also on the case to galvanise support from the wider community through social media, website, press, events and festive food drive collaborations. Everyone is invited to join the NFBB team for the Oakhaven Santa Dash on 3 December!
Last but not least Hilary was recognised for all the vital organising and the sheer amount of hard work she puts in as our Operations Manager. David Da Cunha, our deputy Chairman, closed the formal part of the evening by thanking Oli for his passion and for leading us all so ably in our mission to support local families and individuals in crisis.
After the speech, our volunteers tucked happily into lasagna and salad. All in all, an excellent evening and a BIG thank you to everyone!