New Foodbank going from strength to strength.

A new Foodbank has been created in Ystradgynlais to support people during the pandemic. The Foodbank is making good progress and is going from strength to strength.

Donna Davies from Ystradgynlais Volunteer Centre (YVC) describes the new Foodbank.

 "The Foodbank was launched on the 7th April and in the first three weeks to the 28th April   350 people have benefited from free food parcels. This shows there is a need and we believe this will grow as more people get to know about our service and as pressures on family finances increase over the following weeks

In mid-May we will relocate the main Foodbank operations to the YVC premises located opposite Tesco, Ystradgynlais. This will improve access and be highly visible to people. When relocated YVC intend to have a weekly mobile van service in the Penrhos estate, where there are high numbers of families and older persons facing poverty. The outreach van service is very popular in more rural areas where people / families have no transport or are unable to leave the house for a number of reasons. 

outreach van service

We are in weekly contact with local Councillors in the communities we serve. They have been very supportive and there are positive sharing of information arrangements to the benefit of local people. We also have support through small grants and donations -  Powys Regional Partnership, (just secured today) £6,200, Nant Helen (Celtic Energy £500) Ystradgynlais Town Council £800, PAVO £500 – plus individual personal donations -  the funds are used largely to purchase food.

Volunteers are important to the service. We have secured an additional pool of 50 volunteers over the last 4 weeks. Volunteers help at the Foodbank centre and outreach mobile and many are assigned to people who need help with shopping etc.

We are grateful for all donations to the Foodbank. At the end of each month we will publish a list of people names to thank them. We've published the April donations for all those who have provided consent. We do not specify the values, money or food, as it purpose is to thank all our donors or their kindness in helping people.

We have good relations with local statutory organisations (Social Services) and other support agencies where we supply food parcels to their clients and we identify and refer (by consent) people who visit the Foodbank. We also undertake a number of home deliveries for these agencies. Once a week we deliver to the wardens of Sheltered Housing Schemes e.g. Pont Aur,Ystradgynlais,for their distribution to tenants:  fresh bread, fruit and other fresh foods. We connect with local free food schemes -  for example the Wednesday free lunch deliveries provided by the Ancient Briton Public House to older shielding residents in Ynyswen and Penycae area. We provide volunteers to support their work and Foodbank excess supplies of breads, fruit etc. are also offered by the YVC to people as part of the free lunch.

Fareshare UK and Wales has been a source of support too, we have registered with the scheme and make full use of the benefits of maximising the surplus food chain. Both Tesco in Pontardawe and Ystradgynlais provide us with fresh bread, veg and fruit through these arrangements.

Partnerships are important to the success of the Foodbank, we are connecting with key agencies  such as DWP to enlist our support in distribution of information that can be shared with Foodbank clients about claims for benefits and other support.  

YVC can’t thank Sally Richards the local community Connector (PAVO) enough for her support and the invaluable connections and opportunities she pointed us to. She is a true ambassador for her community and we are very proud and lucky to have such an enthusiastic and professional partner."

Sally Richards PAVO Community Connector

Border Village presents a United Front

We asked Duncan Borthwick of Llanymynech COVID-19 support group, to tell us about the ways in which the local community has come together to support each other during this lockdown period. From sunflowers to sing-a-longs this is a community that's truly presenting a united front.

“When the Covid 19 crisis started to hit, we quickly realised that things needed to be put in place. I work in the local shop and post office. So along with a friend of mine in the village, Susanne Walker, we set up Llanymynech Covid 19 Support Group. We put out a call for volunteers, as we weren’t sure how big this was going to be and we had so many people offer their help. We haven’t fully utilised our volunteers as yet, as we’ve been trying to keep everything together by reducing the amount of people out at any one time. 

Duncan Borthwick & Susanne Walker

We quickly registered with all local surgeries, introduced ourselves to the councils on both sides, and made contact with PAVO. And we also leaflet dropped the entire area. This was all before the lockdown so we were in a good place once everything shut down. Between myself and Susanne, we have now delivered several hundred bags of prescriptions and around a hundred food shops, including full trolleys for people. We have volunteers making phone calls to those isolating too.

PAVO, in particular Sheela Hughes, have been a godsend in terms of information and advice and our community can’t thank you enough for this. We have had referrals from PAVO, the doctors, social services, councils. We have been collecting from food banks for people, as well as making up our own food parcels to ease pressure on food bank services. We have been involved with people who literally have no money due to their jobs disappearing overnight due to this crisis. Through PAVO we have arranged help and advice, and have been easing the pressure on them through regular contact and food drops.

Because of our location on the English/Welsh border, acquiring funding is an issue. The border runs down the road in the middle of the village. So we set up a fundraiser privately. None of us know how long people are going to need support, and we desperately do NOT want to ask people what side of the border they live on- if we get a pot of money from one authority, it cannot be spent on the other side. So we took it upon ourselves to ask our community for help. They overwhelmed us. We did two separate fundraisers. One was open overnight, and they donated around £800. The next one raised £3500 over three days more or less. We cannot thank our community enough for this, it was humbling. We have also been inundated with food, offers for help with fuel costs, etc. This is to provide fuel costs, emergency food help etc. We are aware that children aren’t getting their fruit and balanced meals in school so we are looking into things to help with that too.

Local food drops

I am aware that there are many people that need help, but don’t want to ask- I urge anyone in our local area to get in contact if they feel they need anything. We haven’t been just sticking to our village- we are helping people from Sarnau (near Arddleen), to Four Crosses and Llandrinio, Wern, Llanymynech, Pant, Morda, Oswestry. We collect from pharmacies in Welshpool, Oswestry, Llanfyllin, Knockin, Four Crosses. Anyone who has come to us for help, we have helped. Even if out of area. Anyone we couldn’t help; we have contacted the relevant people to provide help. Privately myself, I have purchased Sunflower, Dwarf Peas, and Sweet-peas, compost and pots. I’ve bagged them up into packs containing all three sets of seeds, for every child in the village that wants one. A few people made donations to help with this. They have been distributed, and we are having a competition to see who can grow the biggest sunflower, largest crop of peas etc. while they are off school. Had a really good uptake with this. I have also organised a mass community singalong where people are filming themselves singing a particular song, and I am putting it all together into a music video, and a music producer friend of mine is going to work his magic and overlay all their voices and cut a full song from it. Again, something fun to take the children’s minds off being isolated. Had MASS interest in this too.

Seed packs & compost for local children 

We are an amazing community here, and we’ve all come together to help. My motto is “Non nobis solum nati sumus”. (Not for ourselves alone are we born), and every member of our village has proved this. Every single member of our community should be proud at how they’ve dealt with this, how they’ve come together to help, and I look forward to a stronger, closer, and more involved community after this. I would like to thank my partner Paul, I don’t drive, and I wouldn’t have been able to do this without him. Our wedding was cancelled this year due to the crisis, so it has taken his mind off things doing this. "

Duncan Borthwick.