Our News

Hi everyone, its December and we at the Food Drop in are preparing for Christmas.

Every year we make up 200 Christmas bags for the peoplewho use our service, so that they can have a bit of something to look forward to.

Its an expensive thing for us to do and we would be grateful for some help.

We need; mince pies, slab type Christmas cakes,boxes of biscuits or shortbread, Boxes or packs of chocolates, and chocolates for the children including selection boxes.

If you can donate please drop your donations at Todmorden College, Todmorden library or the Coop in Hebden Bridge.

On Saturday December 20th we will be doing a street collection around Todmorden Market from 9.30am to 1pm for anyone to donate financially.

Don’t forget our Local Giving page; we depend heavily onthis for our income throughout the year.

Thankyou everyone, and have a merry Christmas.

We have been awarded an incredible £10,000 from the Calderdale Resilience Fund. This generous grant will be a great help in ensuring we can continue supporting our wonderful community every week

Could you be a  volunteer with Todmorden Food Drop In?

Do you have a few hours to spare to help Todmorden Food Drop In?

The foodbank would like to hear from people who could help us:

• on a Saturday morning between 9am and 12 noon

• on Fridays between 11.30am and 1.30pm 

• and drivers on a Monday morning between 10 – 11am 

You would be on a rota so it wouldn’t necessarily be a weekly commitment.

We have a range of volunteering opportunities and would like to hear from you. 

To find out more please message and we’ll get back to you.

See below link for a fundraiser with a difference at the Golden Lion in April!

https://www.facebook.com/events/426267750578213/?ref_source=NEWS_FEED

Could you be a Friday volunteer?

We are very lucky to have a fantastic team of volunteers doing lots of different jobs throughout the week. However we need more help on Fridays.

Could you give up 2 hours of your time to help make sandwiches for our café or get the food store ready for our Saturday session? It won’t involve heavy lifting or anything strenuous. We need a few more people between 11.45 – 1.30pm. If you think you could help or would like to know more please message us.

 

Thanks.

Christmas goodies please!!

Please help now it’s getting colder

 We recently launched our winter appeal asking for help to raise £5000 for warm winter bedding, blankets and other essentials. Already more people are asking for help to keep warm and we will soon run out of funds to buy what we need. 

 We’re very aware that everyone is inundated with appeals for help from so many different quarters. Need is so great and most people have less to give. Howeverif you are able to, please consider a small donation to our winter appeal.

 Many thanks to all of you.

Harvest festival donations

We would also like to thank Shade School, St Mary’s Church, Central Methodist church in Todmorden, the Hebden Royd Methodist church, Hebden Methodists and Well Good Wellness for their generous donations. As always we are blown away by the kindness of our lovely community, it really does make a big difference!

Winter appeal

As the weather starts to get colder, we want to be able to offer warm bedding and other essentials over the winter to people who desperately need them. The difficult choice of warmth or food will be a reality for many individuals and families in the valley over the next few months.

We have therefore set up a crowdfunding appeal, link below, if you are able to donate. Every little bit is a big help! Thank you 😊

https://localgiving.org/fundraising/Todmorden-Food-Drop-in-Winter-appeal-2025

Calling all Morrisons shoppers!

Volunteers from Todmorden Food Drop In recently spent a very productive 3 days at Morrisons collecting donations and raising awareness about the foodbank. People donated generously and lots bought the pre-packed Morrisons donation bags which can be paid for at the till. These really do make a big difference to us as they are all the items we most need.

If you shop at Morrisons and can afford to – please buy a donations bag and leave it on the shelf for us to pick up. Even the smallest donation makes a difference.

Thanks all!

 

Well done Eve!

Eve Bednall recently ran the Leeds half-marathon and raised a magnificent £709 for us. Eve is in the pink top in the picture. She is the granddaughter of Marion who was one of our volunteers for many years and regularly seen in recent years working in the café.  

Marion sadly died at the end of last year and is much missed by us all. Eve has done her proud in raising this money for us. It comes on top of the £1000 that was raised in her memory in December and January.

Rest in peace Marion and thanks so much Eve.

Our first newsletter

Safe Space – another advice agency joins the Food Drop In.

The Drop In already has 3 advice agencies coming in once a month to support the people who come to us on a Saturday morning. From this week we are joined by Safe Space – part of Healthy Minds Calderdale. Hilary spoke to a number of people and gave out lots of information.

Safe Space offers emotional support for people in distress and is a listening ear. They can signpost to other organisations and help people plan their next steps forward. They aim to follow people up a week later to see if they need any further help. 

They will be at the Drop In every fourth Saturday for people registered with the Drop In. Do come and talk to them if you need to.

Welcome Mables Meals

We were delighted to welcome Mabel’s Meals to the Food Drop In on Saturday. Mable’s Meals are a brand new charity working in Halifax and surrounding areas to provide free dog food to foodbanks. Their volunteers Shell and Diane did a brilliant job and ran out of food very quickly. We hope to see them back soon.

Bedding donations

We would like to say a huge thank you to everybody who has donated bedding to the drop in over the winter months. We now have enough for the time being thanks to the kindness and generosity of our wonderful local community. We couldn’t do what we do without you!

We have launched our nappy appeal

Can you help us raise £2000 for much needed nappies for families in need? Every week we have parents come to us who just cannot afford nappies, which are costing around £20 a month

Please go to our local giving account using the link below to find out more and donate whatever you can. It all helps and is very much appreciated

https://localgiving.org/appeal/nappies/

Alternatively, if you would like to donate packs of nappies, you can drop them off in the donation boxes at Morrisons, Hebden Coop or the front entrance of Tod College

A big thanks to the Calderdale Cost of Living Fund for their grant of £10,000. The Cost of Living Fund is a collaboration of a number of different organisations and managed by Calderdale Council and Community Foundation for Calderdale. This money allows us to continue offering foodsupport and other essentials to the growing number of people coming to us on Saturday mornings. Thanks so much!

A big thank you!

The people of the Calderdale Valley are truly amazing in their support of the Food Drop In. We seem to be thanking a lot of folk at the moment which is wonderful. We need every penny we can get right now as our numbers continue to increase – 179 individuals and families on Saturday.

A special thanks this time to the children of Colden Infant and Junior School in Hebden Bridge. They organised a magnificent collection for us. One of the pupils organising it had this to say to us:

“Thank you for all the hard work you have done at the foodbank. I chose to support you for 3 things, one, I am hoping to achieve my brownies charity badge, two, my Mum and my Nana both volunteer and three, I want people to have enough of what they need.

What I did was I went to the foodbank to see what it was like, I looked on the website to research, I wrote an email that got sent out to my school saying if you can, bring in at least one extra thing to my school harvest festival and I collected in all the food. 

In the future, I hope fewer people need to use the food bank.

Well done and many thanks indeed!

10 years on…..

We recently marked the 10th anniversary of the opening of Todmorden Food Drop In at St Marys Parish Church. In 2021 we moved to Tod College. Whist there is nothing to celebrate in 10 years of food and fuel poverty we felt it was important to mark the occasion. Volunteers baked cakes to be given out to the people who come to us in the café. Thanks to all the bakers.

When we opened we had no idea how great the need would be. From just 2 people coming for help on the first Saturday we now average 140 families and individuals each week. We’ve been open every single week since then and didn’t close for even one Saturday during the whole of the pandemic. That says something about the dedication of all the volunteers who make it happen. Everyone at the foodbank is a volunteer – there are no paid staff. A huge thanks to all of them for all the hard work over the past 10 years.

Many people assume that the food and other supplies we give out is all donated or supermarket surplus which is given free. That’s not true. We’re very grateful for all the donations of food that come in at our donation points but we can’t rely on this to feed the high numbers of people coming to us. Most of the food and supplies are bought and we need to raise money all the time for this. That’s why we‘re always appealing for more donations – of money or food and supplies. We’re grateful for all those who donate and also to organisations like Todmorden Council, Cffc and others who help us with grant money.

Some interesting facts

• Since June 2013 we’ve given out a total of 69,337 food parcels

• The average number of weekly parcels has increased from 96 in 2020 to 139 in 2023. Sometimes it’s higher,

• We’ve helped 1,304 individuals and families who have registered with us since 2013.

• We currently have 337 current registrations which means 479 adults and 206 children

• We need £11,000 per month to continue to operate as we do. 

• Our weekly food bill is £2250.

Let’s hope we’re not still needed in another 10 years but in the meantime please continue to help in whatever way you can. Our local giving details are: https://localgiving.org/charity/todfooddropin

Many Thanks

We’re delighted to have been awarded another £500 Magic Little Grant which is from Localgiving in partnership with the Postcode Lottery Trust. This is for fresh food. We’re really keen to offer as much fresh food as possible with our food parcels – fruit and veg, eggs and cheese. 

If any of you gardeners out there ever have surplus produce we are always happy to receive it. Every little bit helps!

We have over 300 families and individuals registered with us for support. Some folk need to come often but some only come occasionally. People come for all sorts of different reasons and find it a welcoming and sociableenvironment. 

June had this to say:

“Being a pensioner it’s hard to cope with soaring fuel costs and food prices. I’m just on a pension. I have been coming to the foodbank on Saturdays for a while. I have been really grateful for the help and the volunteers are so helpful and caring. It means I am able to cope with meals during the week.”

Can you help girls and women with vital sanitary products?

We all know from national research that many girls and young women can’t go to school during their period because they can’t afford period products. We get many requests for sanitary products but they are an expensive item for us to buy in addition to food. We are asked for incontinence pads too. Can you help?

Donations of any tampons, pads or towels can be left at our donation points at Hebden Coop, Morrisons in Todmorden or Tod Library. There is also a donations box in the foyer of Tod College.  All donations will be very gratefully received.

Alternatively you could support us financially with this by donating at https://localgiving.org/charity/todfooddropin

Thanks all!