A vital outreach service helping to tackle poverty in Coventry faces an uncertain future unless businesses can step in to save it.
The Pathfinder Project, funded by The Trussell Trust since the pandemic, has proved a lifeline to thousands of foodbank users in the city.
The service, based at Coventry Foodbank's headquarters in Binley, works with partners to offer practical and financial support, and has gone on to make a huge impact on reducing the number of local foodbank users from 30,000 to 21,000 a year. But now, as the funds run out, attention has turned to local businesses to secure its future.
Its loss would also be felt acutely by the man in charge - because the foodbank marked a turning point in his own life. Project Manager Hugh McNeill sought the help of the charity after being left penniless following the collapse of his restaurant business in 2013. He said:
“My wife had a background in catering and we thought it would be great. Only pretty quickly it turned into a nightmare. It was just like a money pit and we lost everything and ended up in huge debt."
“For me the foodbank is a very personal thing because when I needed it, it was there, and I had the opportunity to transform my life. I thought I was going to open a restaurant and get paid money for giving people food, and now I'm in a situation where I am getting paid, and I'm giving people food, but it's for free!”
Since then Hugh has been instrumental in building what has become the hugely successful outreach project, working closely with more than 50 local and national referral partners, including in the fields of housing, law, financial services, social care, homelessness, immigration, mental health and an increasingly greater focus on employability.
The team are also able to donate essential equipment such as white goods, beds and, in the winter, electric blankets and radiators as well as laptops and mobile phones.
Hugh said:
“When we did our research we found that seven out of 10 people coming to the foodbank weren’t getting any further help. So we introduced ways of collecting data from every client. From that data we were able to signpost people to the right practical and financial support they needed."
“We are able to offer each person tailored support so they can make more informed choices until they are self-sustainable. This can be anything from a couple of weeks to several months.”
The drive to secure a future for Pathfinder also comes in the wake of latest statistics which show that emergency food provision is two and a half times the level seen a decade ago. And, last year, foodbank donations dropped off 40% against an increased demand of 13%.
No wonder then that Hugh is proud of the role he has played in generating a whopping £1.4m million in financial gain for those who received Pathfinder’s help since its launch.
He said: “The realisation is that, in the 13 years I’ve been with the foodbank, things aren’t getting better. The problem is, the demand is bigger than we can actually meet. But we are making a difference. For every pound we are given we probably deliver ten pounds back."
“All the good work that we've done in turning things around will be wasted. And I think that’s a crying shame. The problem is that charities are all chasing the same pot of money, and unless you've got a new project, it's very hard to get that support. But you can't run a project with volunteers alone!"
He added: “My life was transformed through food bank and that's why I try and give back as much as I can. But going forward, without the funding, we can only do so much. Pathfinder is now being run very much on a shoestring but thankfully we’ve still got our volunteers, whom we couldn’t do without.
“What we really need is a corporate sponsor or sponsors to step in and offer us a lifeline, enabling us to build on all the good work we’ve achieved for the last four years.”
