ABOUT US
Building Bridges across Communities in Bradford
The Food Bank is governed by Trustees, who are: Lashman Singh, Ken Leach, Julie Woodhurst,, Helen Bradshaw Lynskey, Graham Walker, Steve Barnbrook, John Henkel. All Trustees are volunteers and do not get paid for thier work.
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We have a range of knowledge and experience within the voluntary and statutory sector. Many of us are already involved in similar areas of volunteering work with people in need of food and work together in one organisation in pursuit of consolidating such efforts across the District.
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The Food Bank Committee is supported by a co-ordianator (Becky Hutchinson) and help from other volunteers soruurcing food and packing food into bags.
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Our Vision and how we came to it
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We are individuals with a vivid interest in Building Bridges across communities in Bradford. In the past, Bradford has received a lot of negative publicity which has focused on divisions between different communities.
We’d like to emphasise the multi-faith, multi-ethnic aspect of this project, based on the common denominator of ‘giving’ that is shared amongst religions and cultures from all walks of life. We’d like people to give their time, money, skills and spare food; coming together to build bridges across the whole Bradford Metropolitan District.
The Food Bank came about because Lashman, who has volunteered within this field for many years, noted that whilst there are a number of small organisations that make and serve food free of charge in Bradford to those who can get there at key times of day, such services can only reach a minority as they tend to be centrally located within the City. It is widely acknowledged that there are many more vulnerable individuals and families within the geographically large and diverse Metropolitan District of Bradford who are disadvantaged and in need of food and whose health and well being could be improved by the provision of food when needed within their own local community.
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It is also acknowledged that across the Metropolitan District of Bradford, there is an underutilised resource of supermarkets, food manufacturers and retailers who hold surplus food that goes to waste (e.g. into landfill).
It is the vision of Bradford Metropolitan Food Bank to establish and facilitate a vital link between those that have surplus food and those that need it, creating a City and District wide collection and distribution service.