PLANS to launch a Foodbank for residents in need solely in Westbury and its adjacent villages have been outlined to town councillors.
Currently the town is served by the Warminster and District Foodbank, which is operating a telephone service due to being closed under Covid-19 restrictions. There is also the Westbury Open Food Project that operates out of the Crosspoint charity’s office in the Market Place and the Community Fridge at Crosspoint, which has been shut throughout the national lockdowns.
Presenting the proposal for Westbury to have its own official charity, Foodbank volunteer, Ian Cooper, told members it had been the brainchild of himself and a fellow volunteer, Dave Clarke, who was unable to attend the meeting.
“The point here is to look at setting up a separate charitable body for a Foodbank that serves Westbury and the adjacent villages,” Ian Cooper said.
He explained that the current affiliation with Warminster worked “pretty well, in that we can piggy bank onto something that already exists. It means that we have only a limited amount of administrative work to do to be involved in that.
“But on the downside, we don’t really have a say in the operation and are not really involved with the board of trustees.
“In order to benefit in getting food parcels, we need to donate items from our side, which we can do as we have a good range of food donors.
“So we have something that works, but maybe not as well as we would like for the future.”
He said he was hopeful the charity could be up and running by mid-2021.
“Talking to a couple of other Foodbanks about how we go down this road, the board would need no more than 5/6 trustees and 12 volunteers that would be able to help with packing food etc. We’ve got at least 12 volunteers already and have to see if they would want to volunteer with this, if we can get it off the ground.”
It was explained that new accommodation would be needed to operate from, so they want to register with the Charity Commission as soon as possible, to benefit from rental rate relief and to register with HMRC to receive Gift Aid.
“We are looking into insurance, data protection, and IT needs and we have to make sure we have a good communications plan to reach businesses, “ Ian Cooper said. “We are satisfied we would be able to have the support of existing donors.”
Ian Cooper said they currently enjoyed a good relationship with the council and its officers and he was hopeful the new membership could include a representative from the council. He also said seed funding would probably be requested from the council to get the project off the ground but that could be reduced over a few years.
Cllr Ward Jones asked if other parish councils would be approached for support with the plan and Ian Cooper replied that they had not pinned exact villages down, but had delivered food up to Scudamore and Bratton.
“If this is supported, we’d try and have that conversation with the villages that are included, to make sure nobody falls through the gap,” he said.
Cllr Sheila Kimmins asked, “Why did you and Mr Clarke think it was necessary to set up such a charity and where and what kind of premises would you be looking for?”
Ian Cooper said, “If nothing changed, we could still continue with Warminster and District. With the help of the council we could operate the food project, but we have little input into how the project is run and my feeling is that if there was a separate entity, a charity looking after Westbury and the immediately surrounding villages, you do have that greater autonomy. You will be responsible for all the decisions made and the policies you adopt in terms of who’s entitled and so on and so forth.”
In terms of premises they needed somewhere accessible for people, in or around the town centre, and ideally with as few food deliveries as the charity could manage, to reduce attached costs.
Ian Cooper added, “I think we would end up being bad neighbours to Crosspoint volunteers once they get going again, as the place just isn’t big enough.”
It was explained that the group would probably need to rent private accommodation, but would endeavour to get whatever rate relief they could.
The proposed scheme would amalgamate existing arrangements, and different ways of how the organisation could be set up had been looked at.
Ian explained, “The best way would be as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation, which can take two forms – 1] a membership of trustees and 2] a wider membership.
“At the moment we feel it would be sufficient to have an organisation based on all the trustees.”
