New Partnership Sees Foodbank Donation Stations at East Riding Council Buildings

A new partnership launched on Friday will see 29 new food donation points across the East Riding in council-run buildings, including leisure centres, libraries, and customer service centres, in an urgent bid to support local families facing deepening financial hardship this Christmas.

The initiative, led by The East Riding Food Poverty Alliance in collaboration with East Riding Council, aims to tackle the growing crisis of food poverty by ensuring that community donations remain local, directly supporting neighbours in need.

The urgency of the campaign is highlighted by Jodie Colgrave, Food Bank Development Officer at The East Riding Food Poverty Alliance, who painted a stark picture of the struggles facing both those needing support and the organisations providing it.

Jodie explained the scope and goal of the new initiative:

“We've got 29 collection points right across the East Riding and they're in places like leisure centres, we've got libraries, customer service centres, and then there's a few additional council run locations such as Bridlington Spa and the South Cliff Caravan Park.

The purpose of these is to raise awareness of food poverty in the region and it's to help collect food.

So although the alliance is working towards that goal of reducing food bank dependency, there's still such a massive need for the support of the community so that people are still getting that emergency crisis support”.

The new drop-off points come at a critical time, as financial pressures on households have led to a simultaneous drop in charitable giving and a surge in demand for assistance.

Jodie detailed the challenging economic environment impacting food banks:

“Since last year, there's been a 25% decrease in food donations from the public. Organizations are seeing less coming in terms of like surplus food. So, the donations all around are just going down, but at the same time, the need is going up.

I visited one of our members last week and they had 70 extra families access their service in just the space of a week.

There's a lot of reasons it goes up over Christmas and one of those is people are just struggling in general. There's the fuel poverty that comes into it. So, everybody is really really stretched. But that also goes for the food banks. They're having to fund these projects themselves and find the money for the food to support their families”.

The logistics of the operation have been streamlined to maximise local impact. Jodie confirmed that every donation made will directly benefit the surrounding area.

“Each of the collection points, they've been teamed up with a local food bank. So any food that's donated will stay in the local area supporting their communities.

It's a case of when the bins start filling up the collection bins, the council team will contact the food bank and ask them to come along and collect it.

So we're hoping to get a decent amount of donations before Christmas to support the food banks over that period. But I think if all goes well, this will continue next year. The bins are in place. It's all been sorted. So hopefully it will just be a new way of getting the organization some extra food into their services in the communities”.

Donors are being encouraged to think beyond basic tins and packets, focusing instead on items that struggling families often find too expensive to purchase. Jodie noted that help is also needed for items essential to a hopeful holiday season.

“All donations are really appreciated, but they have to be in date to start with and they've got to be like long life ambient products. So, your tins, your packets, cereal, pastas, things like that. So, nothing that's going to spoil in the collection bin.

We also accept toiletries, household items, anything like that. So, anything that you think quite pricey that families can't necessarily afford, that'd be fantastic, really appreciated. Also Christmas treats. Some people are really struggling to provide those, so, a lot of the food banks are doing things like providing selection boxes for children. So, anything like that and also pet food because that's a massive expense and people are having to choose between feeding themselves or them pets. And yeah, that's a huge help there”.

Local collection points on the East Yorkshire Coast can be found at