Foodbank raises bar

Three Crowns West St Oldham and plans for New Oldham Food Bank premises

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PLANS to reach out to give more help to Oldham families in crisis could soon be a reality for one of the borough's vital lifeline services.

Oldham Foodbank is hoping to move to premises four times the size of its current base in Clegg Street.

The charity, which is run by churches across the borough and is a social franchise of The Trussell Trust, is awaiting a decision on a change of use application on the former Three Crowns pub, in Manchester Street, which was bought by Oldham Council at the beginning of the year.

If approved the foodbank hopes to be relocated by the end of October.

Foodbank manager Andrew Barr said it would not only mean helping many more in need but would also allow them to dramatically increase their range of support services.

No longer simply an emergency food depot, from this month they also began offering a one-to-one debt support and budgeting service through a collaborative lottery-funded project with Christians Against Poverty and Oldham's vulnerable people's charity, KeyRing.

Relocating from Clegg Street - which was only meant to be a temporary six month home back in 2012 - will open up many opportunities and consequently help to turn more lives around and out of poverty.

"We offer a lot more services now within the foodbank such as opportunities for job searching and one-to-one, on-going support for people in various situations.

"These premises are difficult to work in as we have no big open spaces. The building was designed as office space; lots of little rooms and narrow corridors. It's not the best premises but it was the best available to us at the time.

"We have seen a massive increase in the number of people using the foodbank since we started in 2012 due to the economic climate and through more frontline agencies referring people to us, but this move isn't simply about that. We want to be able to offer so much more and this would allow us to do that."

Relocating would see them launching a Real Junk Food Project pop-up cafe which uses food from supermarkets and cafes which would otherwise go to waste. The foodbank would also expand it's relationship with Incredible Futures Oldham to make use of food grown by locally community groups and develop "Eat Well, Spend Less" courses for families.

They're also planning to set up a clothing bank for people who are going for job interviews and work closely with MIND to offer mindfulness courses, anger management and confidence building classes at the new premises.

"This is a really exciting proposition for us to be involved in and will enable us to do more to help move people into a better lifestyle," said Andrew.

From March 2015 to April 2016 Oldham Foodbank handed out 5,005 food parcels - designed to last a minimum of three days - to help out 3,317 adults and 1,688 children in crisis.

He says although demand is currently stable there has been a shift in the type of people calling on them for help.

"The number of people we've helped is around the same as it was this time last year," he said.

"The biggest change we've seen is the increase in the number of working families coming to us.

It used to be single people and couples but there are a lot more families where at least one member of the household is working but they're still struggling to make ends meet. It's down to economic pressures; prices have gone up but wages haven't and people are stuck.

"Around Oldham there aren't a large number of well paid jobs. There's a lot of agency, temporary and retail work but a lack of higher paid positions.

"There's a lot going on to regenerate the town but the area really does need more good businesses to start offering better paid jobs."