About us

Introduction

Skipton Food Bank is run by Skipton Baptist Church. It has a part-time manager and assistant, and many volunteers from across Craven. We welcome donations of time, money and food, and look to work together with local agencies, schools, and businesses to support people in crisis.

We support people through a referral system with local agency partners, and are able to provide for people with special dietary needs. We can also tailor parcels for each family or person we provide for to make sure that it suits their needs as best we can. The food parcels are designed to last for up to a week as we know that Craven is a rural area and people may not have transport to get into Skipton often to access further support.

How it all began 

The first steps were taken by a small prayer group at the Skipton Baptist Church in 2010. They wanted to show some of the love they had experienced from their God to others in their local community who were struggling.  The group decided to give out food parcels at Christmas and then again at Easter. Regular donations started in Autumn 2011. More volunteers from the Baptist Church became involved and overall 60 hampers were given out during 2012. In 2013, with increasing connections to agencies, 320 food parcels were distributed as well as 85 at Christmas.  

At the end of 2013 the demands of the Food Bank were too great for a few volunteers from the Church and so a Lead Volunteer was asked to act as co-ordinator. One of her first tasks was to apply for funding which was awarded in March 2014 and then they were able to recruit a Food Bank Manager. The main tasks being to look after the volunteers, manage the day to day running of the food bank and communicate with both supporters and agencies. In 2014 we distributed 696 food parcels and 105 Christmas hampers. 

Developments 

With some funding from Craven District Council we were asked to expand the provision of food parcels throughout Craven. We have also worked with Craven District Council’s No Second Night Out scheme for emergency homeless packs including tent, sleeping bag, warm clothes and food parcels for those who find themselves without accommodation. This funding has now ceased, but we continue to provide homeless packs for those in need and will take referrals from the Craven area.

We have been very busy during 2020 responding to people in the COVID-19 pandemic. There was a great need for food across the district and many people have really struggled. In 2020 we distributed 2043 parcels and 350 Christmas parcels, all by home delivery through our team of volunteer drivers. We were running 10 sessions a week in our new hub at St Andrew's Church Hall. We are  working with many partner orgnisations across Craven to join up thinking on helping people out of poverty.

Since September 2021 our staff team has reduced to 1 again and we reduced our opening hours to 3 days a week. Monday, Wednesday and Friday Morning.  We are trialling a drop in session on a Tuesday morning aimed at helping people address the reason they are struggling to afford food, encouraging more people to return to picking up their own parcels and trying to work out how to move forward after the pressures of the pandemic.

Our Current Position

We are currently totally funded and resourced by the general public, local people and businesses with no need to rely on grants.  We are again working by refferral with local agencies supplying food parcels to those who are struggling to feed themselves or their familes.

We have joined the Trussell Trust network of foodbanks.  We are also now operating out of ‘The House’ which is part of Skipton Baptist Church, next door on Otley Street.  We are distributing our parcels from there and offering people a cuppa and a listening ear when they pick up food from us.  We will be operating alongside our CAP (Christians Against Poverty) debt centre and Renew cafe aiming to be a welcoming place to help and signpost people who need further help.  This is only possible due to the generosity of people through donations of food and finance.

We have 2 part time members of staff.