05 Sep 2025 Guest blog: Does the ‘foodbank’ name reflect the work foodbanks are doing in 2025?
In our latest guest blog, we hear from Amy Holbrook, Operations Coordinator at Warrington Foodbank, about the evolving role of foodbanks, the challenges of rising demand, and why urgent national change is needed to tackle food insecurity — while showing how Warrington Foodbank’s four pillars of support are helping to make a difference locally.
As another National Foodbank Day comes along, and Warrington Foodbank moves into its thirteenth year, we face some tough questions. Why do foodbanks still exist? Is the work we’re doing helping enough? Feeding people in crisis is central to what we have always done, but more work must be done locally and nationally to address the crises the people we feed are facing, and the workload of our foodbank is ever changing.
Every foodbank runs differently, but the work we do at Warrington Foodbank can be categorised into four pillars. The first pillar will always be emergency food. As a Trussell foodbank, referral-based crisis support in the form of food parcels is what we do. It’s a ‘there’s no food in the cupboards and I have no money to get any’ situation, and one that saw us give out 7974 parcels to 2867 households last year.
Our second pillar is an affordable food offering, and this is a pillar that has grown significantly in the last twelve months. Warrington Foodbank manages three fixed and four mobile pantry locations, and these act as a pre and post crisis measure for a lot of our community. Our pantries have no eligibility criteria and instead serve a mixed audience of those engaging with the foodbank, those ‘just about managing’, and those with an interest in reducing food waste and interacting with their community.
Food may be the ‘hook’ with us, but wraparound support and community connection is equally as important, and this takes us to our third pillar. There are many reasons why people may be facing food insecurity and it is important that we help to address them. Citizen’s Advice are present in our sessions, mainly offering advice around debt reduction and income maximisation which can be the difference between some people needing or not needing the foodbank. Other organisations offer meaningful support to our guests during foodbank sessions, such as energy advice, mental and physical health support, and general signposting to other services which may be able to change people’s circumstances. It is important that we embed this support within our foodbank service so that what we offer isn’t just short term food support, but a longer term solution.
Our fourth pillar is food redistribution. We work with food distributors and producers to access surplus food when it is available, which we then redistribute to food projects across the north west to increase food security within communities and ensure the food is used, rather than going to waste.
With all of this in mind, are we still ‘just’ a foodbank? Yes, because this is the reality of a lot of foodbanks in 2025. Food insecurity isn’t one-dimensional, and the situation isn’t as simple as having an empty cupboard. Our foodbank is heavily relied on and has grown substantially since its inception, yet we are not nationally or locally funded so rely on the generosity of our supporters. That being said, demand continues to outstrip supply and your support is needed now more than ever to help us to continue delivering our impact at the local level.
Our work at the local level helps to support the people that use our service, but national policy change needs to occur when aiming for a future without the need for our work.
In June 2025, Warrington Foodbank was part of a national Lobby Day that met with MPs at the Houses of Parliament to discuss the Guarantee Our Essentials Campaign. The government speaks of a future where foodbanks are no longer needed, but with concerns around welfare cuts and Universal Credit falling short of what it costs to live, continuing to do what we have always done isn’t enough.
But, there is hope. Trussell reported that foodbank usage in the UK was down 7% nationally and 7% regionally in 2024. Warrington Foodbank out-performed this statistic and reported a 9.6% reduction in usage in 2024. What is the reason? It’s hard to know, but strengthening our referral process, working to lower the cost of food, embedding wraparound support into our service, and lobbying for national change does have an impact, and it is work we’ll continue to do.
National Food Bank Day encourages people to commit to contributing to the cause that believes no one should go to bed hungry, and this is absolutely core to our values. Hopefully you now have a better understanding of the work we do, and why it is important that we have your support to continue delivering this. We keep an updated list on our website of our most needed items, or you can give a one off or regular financial donation by visiting: https://donate.kindlink.com/warrington-foodbank/8420
Author Bio:
Amy Holbrook is the Operations Coordinator at Warrington Foodbank. She is celebrating her 1 year anniversary with the foodbank this month, and works with a large team of volunteers to deliver the charity’s food projects.
References:
[1] https://www.weareincludability.co.uk/event/national-food-bank-day
[2] 2024 Unwrapped | Warrington Foodbank
[3] Guarantee Our Essentials | Trussell
