21/22 Review: HFN Distributes £38,000 Worth of Food
Between April 2021 and March 2022, Hartlepool Food Network distributed thousands of food items that otherwise would have gone to landfill, helping vulnerable people such as asylum seekers, the homeless, and the unemployed. Here we take a closer look at what we achieved over these 12 months.
Hartlepool Food Network was set up in July 2017 and became operational in March 2018. We are run entirely by volunteers who give their time to help us in our two main areas of activity, they are:
To reduce food waste and food poverty by sharing information, advice, and guidance on how to store, prepare, and source food in a healthy and cost effective way. This includes a community fridge service where food is stored and can be accessed by those that will use it, so that as little waste is produced as possible.
To help residents access services that help them to save money, as well as offering a monthly social opportunity to reduce isolation, and a chance to meet new people, make friends, and to volunteer their time.
During the 21/22 period, we distributed an incredible 31,398 items of food, which included over 9,000 bread items (loaves of bread & bread rolls), 1,641 tinned items, and 545 punnets of mushrooms.
The food distributed has an estimated value of nearly £38,000 and has directly benefited a range of people throughout Hartlepool, the estimated number being 8,873 non-unique individuals.
Individuals who have received food from Hartlepool Food Network are often those who have limited-to-no access to money, including asylum seekers, the homeless and destitute, the unemployed and those who receive Universal Credit, and substance and alcohol users or those in recovery. Others to have benefited are students, carers, and families with children.
The Food Network delivers food on a weekly basis to organisations and projects throughout the town in order to ‘top-up’ their own supplies and continue to provide their services to their service users. The organisations/projects we supply include:
The Hartlepool Trussell Trust Foodbank, who operate twice per week and provide three day’s worth of emergency food to people who find themselves in a crisis situation.
Food Cycle, whose volunteers provide free meals every Monday at 6:45pm. Everyone is welcome to attend, no matter your background or circumstances, and no referral is needed, you can just turn up!
St Aidan’s Kitchen, who provide food to people who are hungry, homeless, or in any kind of need. The kitchen is open every Thursday between 9:30am and 11:30am.
The Bread & Butter Thing, where people can pay just £7.50 for a minimum of £35 worth of items, made up of quality fresh food, as well as store cupboard staples.
Hartlepool Food Network is committed to continuing and expanding the work we do in the local community and are proud to support the individuals and the organisations and projects that use our service.
We are hugely grateful to all of our volunteers, without whom we would not be able to operate. We would also like to thank Hartlepool Borough Council, Thirteen Housing Group, Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust, and Hartlepool CIO.
Foodstuff donations are generously donated by ASDA, Bookers, Farmfoods, Greggs, Lidl, Marks & Spencer’s, Morrisons, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and other local independent shops.
