About Purley Food Hub
Purley Food Hub is an emergency food bank that helps local people in crisis. It was set up in January 2013 by Churches Together in Purley & Kenley and became a registered charity with elected Trustees in July 2013. Since then we have provided over 420,000 meals to more than 46,000 clients and family members in need.
Clients have to be referred to us by one of our Ticket Partners. These are agencies and professionals across Croydon borough including Croydon Council, GP surgeries, churches, schools, children’s centres, hostels and refuges, and a range of other voluntary and statutory organisations.
We provide clients and family members with enough non-perishable food for three meals a day for three days, along with toiletries and household essentials. Clients collect their food parcels on Wednesday mornings from our base at Purley United Reformed Church in Purley town centre.
We work closely with other food providers, particularly the two Food Stops at Old Lodge Lane Baptist Church in Purley and St Francis Church, Monks Hill, Selsdon. Clients don’t need to be referred to go to a Food Stop.
These are open on Friday mornings and visitors are able to choose around £20 of fresh and frozen food and non-perishable items for a payment of £3.50 or £4.
Purley Food Hub is run entirely by volunteers from the local churches and community. We have no paid staff. Food is donated by the churches, schools, businesses, uniformed groups, community organisations like Rotary and the Women’s Institute and many families and individuals.
As well as providing food and toiletries we also offer individual help and advice through our team of Client Support Volunteers, who work alongside colleagues at the Food Hub and at Old Lodge Lane Food Stop.
Who's Who at the Food Hub
The work of Purley Food Hub is overseen by a Board of Trustees, currently eight in number, who are elected by the member churches of Purley & Kenley Churches Together. Trustees have legal responsibility for governance and good practice, while the Management Committee look after day-to-day activity.
TRUSTEES
Chair of Trustees: Trevor Jones
Noel Brownsell
A parishioner at St John the Baptist Church Purley, Noel enjoys bringing the donations from fellow parishioners each month to the Food Hub at Purley United Reformed Church. He was a foster parent for 30 years specialising in the care of children with disabilities and also part of Croydon’s Shared Lives scheme. He retired from selling heavy Scania trucks 12 years ago.
Mark Dakin
Previously a Food Hub volunteer, Mark has volunteered for several years with Croydon Churches Floating Shelter at Purley Baptist Church and Christ Church. A member of Purley Baptist, he is a solicitor with a legal firm in Croydon, specialising in defending people at magistrates’ and crown courts. Daughter Rebecca is a Food Hub volunteer.
Nick Pannell
A member of St Mary’s Church Addington, Nick and wife Lesley also help at The Vine food bank in New Addington and run the Croydon Churches Floating Shelter each year at St Mary’s. A maths teacher for 34 years, Nick runs a shore-based sailing school in Croydon and is a Royal Yachting Association senior instructor.
George Sarkodie
A member of Christ Church Purley, George is currently Head of Commercial for the Ministry of Justice leading a national team of 15. He was previously a governor at Christ Church Primary School and a volunteer with Croydon Churches Floating Shelter for the homeless.
Rev Fiona Weaver
Fiona was elected as a Trustee in October 2021 after serving a year as a co-opted member of the board. She is Vicar of St Mark’s and St Swithun’s Churches Purley, and in addition to her pastoral work is a volunteer driver with the Food Hub. She also had the first yellow wheelie bin to collect food donations installed in St Mark’s.
Terry Whittaker
A member of Purley United Reformed Church since the early 1980s and an elder for the past three years, Terry has helped with the children’s Sunday club for more than 20 years. Initially she was a nurse before switching to primary school teaching when her children were growing up. She is now retired.
Annabel Wright
A Food Hub volunteer, Annabel (Christ Church) is Financial Director for the Artisan Brandt software and IT services group. She and her family are keen supporters of the Food Hub – daughter Winnie is also a volunteer and swims for us in the Purley Swimathon along with brothers Gilbert and Ernest.
MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE
The Food Hub Management Committee takes care of day-to-day business and consists of:
Louise Willmer (Chair and Stock Controller), Helen Harris, Brian Gibbs (IT), Salli Ransom (Administrator), Joanna Walker (Treasurer) and Ros Shepherd.
Landmark events at Purley Food Hub
Frequently Asked Questions
Click on the arrow for answers to the some of the questions we regularly receive from Food Hub users, supporters and members of the public.
What is the difference between the Food Hub and a Food Bank?
The Food Hub is a food bank-plus. When Purley & Kenley Churches Together were setting up Purley Food Hub they realised that clients might need more than food parcels. So as well as being a repository for food, we act as a hub for other activities such as offering clients extra support, signposting them to other agencies where appropriate.
How do you know someone needs food?
The agencies and professionals we work with (our Ticket Partners) are aware of their clients’ circumstances and will refer them to us if they are in need of food. We are not a “drop in” – each client is referred to us by one of our partners who knows the client’s particular situation.
Do users contact you direct? How do you get a referral?
No, clients don’t contact us direct. We have around 130 Ticket Partners who have clients in need of help. Instead of each partner distributing food themselves, they refer clients to us and we provide the client and their family with food parcels. To put it another way, we act as fulfilment agents similar to ‘Fulfilled by Amazon’ for sellers on Amazon Marketplace.
Do you only want food donations?
We also welcome cash donations, which we use to:
- buy stocks of food and other items we are short of
- buy bread for clients, the only fresh food we distribute but cannot store
- buy bus tickets, if required, for clients who collect food in person (pre Covid-19)
- cover the Food Hub’s incidental running expenses. We don’t have any paid staff so there are no wage bills.
Do you accept out of date food?
No, we don’t accept any food that’s out of date, past its ‘best before’ date or if the tin or packaging is damaged in any way. We do not give out anything that we wouldn’t accept ourselves when buying from a shop or supermarket. It may be the only food our clients have and it is vital that it is in the best possible condition when they receive it. As an independent charity it is our responsibility always to protect our clients’ health, and that includes good quality food.
Do you take clothing?
No, we don’t take clothing, or crockery or cutlery – unfortunately we don’t have the storage space. There are several charity shops nearby in Purley which will be glad to receive donations, and Croydon Refugee Day Centre will also be pleased to receive clothing on Monday and Tuesday mornings.
Do you need any more volunteers?
We currently have a full complement of volunteers, but vacancies do arise from time to time. Full details on our Support the Food Hub page in the Donate Time section.
Where and when can I drop off food?
We are open to receive donations each Monday, Wednesday and Saturday morning from 9.00am to 12.00noon, at Purley United Reformed Church, 906 Brighton Road, Purley CR8 2LN. We also have collection points in several stores in South Croydon, Purley and Coulsdon plus around 20 yellow roadside collection bins in the south of the borough. For details see the Supporting the Food Hub page.
If you have a question that we haven’t answered here, please send us a message using the form on the Contact page.
Ring out the old, ring in the new
When we relaunched our website in January 2021 we took the opportunity to freshen up the Food Hub logo. The change did not affect our existing livery or publicity material – the original identifier is familiar to many and we continue to use it. However, the new image is now standard for online and printed media.
Policies
The Data Protection Act 2018 (www.gov.uk/data-protection) is the UK’s implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which controls how personal information is used by organisations, businesses or the government.
By law organisations who process personal data must have a Data Controller; this can be a company or other legal entity. At Purley Food Hub the Data Controller is the Board of Trustees of the Purley & Kenley Churches Together Food Hub, Registered Charity no. 1152807.
We collect and process personal data from visitors to our website who complete forms on our Contact and Donate pages. We do this in order to correspond with visitors when necessary and to comply with HMRC regulations concerning Gift Aid donations.
In the case of donations qualifying for Gift Aid, names, contact information and relevant financial details are entered into our accounting database which is held on a secure computer. The database is password protected and accessed only by the Treasurer and their authorised assistant(s). Personal details are held on the database for seven years after the last donation received, or such time period as required by HMRC.
Original signed paper authorisations are held securely by the Treasurer or their authorised assistant(s) for seven years after the last donation received or such time as required by HMRC.
You have the right to ask to see any information we hold about you by submitting a Subject Access Request to the Data Protection Administrator. You also have the right to ask for information which you believe to be incorrect to be rectified.
The Data Protection Administrator can be contacted by telephone on 07546 635295, by email at dpo@pfoodhub.uk, or by writing to Purley Food Hub Data Protection Administrator, c/o Purley Baptist Church, Banstead Road, Purley, CR8 3EA.
If you are concerned about the way your information is handled please contact us using the above details. If you are still dissatisfied you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioners Office. (ico.org.uk)
The Trustees have also drawn up policies covering:
- Health & Safety
- Safeguarding
- Bullying & Harassment
- Complaints & Discipline
These are available on request to the Food Hub’s Administrator at purleyfoodhub@gmail.com.