Good afternoon to you all,
I hope you have all had a good week.

Another busy week for us, last Friday I had the pleasure of attending the Mayors Charity Dinner we were hosted by Iceni Projects, who support us financially and by volunteering. During the evening one of their executives donated a Television that he won in the raffle. 

On Monday we met with our new Trussell Trust Pathfinder lead Oli, this was a productive meeting, updating our strategy and discussing our progress against  the strategy. We will have some follow up meetings with Oli in the coming months to deep dive into some of our areas of work, our operations and centres to see where we can make some further improvements and to review if our strategies are working.

There has been a recent TT project to make sure the TT brand reflects the shared vision and works well for all the people we need to serve.
During the research, the response confirmed that there is a great deal of trust and warmth towards both food banks and the Trussell Trust. This is a great testament to the amazing work we all undertake in our local community each day and how powerfully we collectively advocate for people who use food banks. Although each food bank is an individual charity, together our identities are intertwined, and there is confirmation of the value of being a part of this community of foodbanks.

However, it was also established that the TT brand is restricting reaching the shared vision:
Less than half of the public thought the TT were clear in explaining what we do.
Our current identity doesn’t meet a range of accessibility and digital standards, and this impacts people needing to access vital support.
The feedback from Foodbank's also told the TT that they could do a better job in defining our relationship with each other, and that aspects of our brand now feel outdated.

Over the coming months, there will be updates on how the TT brand will be changing and we will learning about this further at some upcoming TT Roadshows

Updates to the TT brand will begin to take place later this year and continue into 2025. The phased roll out and support will focus on helping us to make any changes at the right pace for our food bank, manage waste and prevent any unnecessary costs from being incurred. 

I can assure you all that andy changes we need to make will be appropriate and proportionate for Thurrock Foodbank 

We are still in need of volunteers at our Store Collection being held this coming Saturday at Sainsburys Chafford Hundred. Especially for the morning sessions from 9:00 until 1:00.

If you can spare an hour on Saturday please do contact Helen at info@thurrock.foodbank.org.uk
Demand is still very strong, and this week we have spent a total of £1,185 replenishing our stocks. We sadly are still quite short of some of the essential items required to make up a balanced food parcel.  
These items include:
Savoury Snacks
Crisps
Long Life Milk
Tinned Fish
Tinned Meat
Sponge Puddings
Mashed Potato
Squash & Fruit Juice

Your continued support really does make a difference, as we do continue to see blessings in our work each day.
If you require any further information regarding our work or would to discuss any aspect of our work in more detail, please do not hesitate to contact me,

Thank you for your continued support. It is so very much appreciated

Best Regards