Third lowest June on record as trustees and management review our new way of working.
Last month was our third lowest June on record, with just over 150 people fed and 1,350 meals provided, compared with 340 people and 3,060 meals in June 2025.
Only in 2013 and 2015, our first and third year in operation, were the figures for people fed lower (138 and 137 respectively).
Since we moved to our new way of working in March, the number of clients and family members receiving food has dropped by around half. Until then, we were delivering food parcels to clients’ homes on both Wednesdays and Saturdays, but four months ago we switched to having clients come to collect their food, on Wednesdays only.
As Trevor Jones, Chair of Trustees, notes in the Trustees’ and Management Committee’s initial review of the new system, client numbers have fallen from 40-50 a week (Saturdays and Wednesdays combined) to 25 or less currently.
The Trustees and Management Committee are looking into the causes – for example, our previous four deliveries have been reduced to three collections, and some clients are clear they would prefer having the food delivered to their doorstep rather than needing to come to collect it.
Fine tunings to the new operation have been made as we have gone along since March, such as increasing the Wednesday team of volunteers to 10.
We have also introduced new front desk role to greet clients, explain the process and chase up any callers running late.
The use of the lounge at Purley URC is being explored to provide advice sessions on Wednesdays, run by partner organisations. New picking lists have also been developed to determine the size and quantity of items to fit each client’s family make-up across their three weekly food collections.
Clients in food need whose referrals are received after the Monday lunchtime cut-off point will be invited to collect a pre-packed emergency parcel on the Wednesday to tide them over until they can go to their nearest Food Stop on Friday. Then they can collect their full parcel from the Food Hub the following Wednesday.
“These and other suggested changes are currently being introduced and we ask for the patience of our volunteers, supporters and ticket partners as we continue working our way through them,” say Trustees’ Chair Trevor Jones and Management Committee Chair Louise Willmer.
► A full review of all of the changes will be delivered at the Food Hub’s AGM on Thursday 15th October at Christ Church, Purley. All of our volunteers, friends, supporters and ticket partners are very warmly invited – please do come if you possibly can!