Photo: Groceries are sorted at a grocery bank (Image Credit: Jonathan Brady / PA Wire)
Submitted by Tom Togher to Salford Citizens Advice
In the past few years we have probably all heard a lot about the rise of food clubs and we are fortunate to have a strong network of food clubs in Salford ensuring that no one goes to bed hungry in Salford.
If you need to use a food bank, you usually have to arrange one Referral – what can be done electronically.
Probably the best way is to contact us using the contact details below.
If you live outside of Salford, any Citizens Advice Bureau can arrange a referral to your local food Trussell Trust Food bank.
Emergency aid
A food bank is designed to provide you and your family with an emergency supply of food. It is not a way of continuously meeting your family or family’s nutritional needs.
Groceries are sorted in a grocery bank. (Image credit: Jonathan Brady / PA Wire)
You can also get help from the council in an emergency Salford Assist program by calling the Spirit of Salford hotline 0800 952 1000.
If you’ve just had a new baby, you can get extra help from some local charities – Salford Baby Bench or Visit from the stork, To access any of these products, simply contact a doctor or us for a referral.
Almost all of the city’s food charities have formed a separate charity, the Salford Foodshare Network, and work hard to help households who are struggling to meet their nutritional needs on a regular basis.
The first thing we did is make sure you were getting advice on the issue that may have caused a temporary issue with your income. That’s why everyone in Salford has a citizenship service available through a food bank.
Ongoing help with eating
We also worked with our colleagues Greater Manchester FareShare in partnership with a number of local community groups – to create food clubs across Salford.
A food club allows a member to buy something like this £ 15 Worth of food for £ 2.50 or £ 3 once a week. You can use a food club every week. You need to apply to join, and each food club has its own set of rules. In general, however, you must be receiving a low-income benefit or work poorly paid to join.
Some food clubs have other services such as school uniform help, health promotion services, or access to ours local credit union.
There are now 12 food clubs in Salford – and we believe that around six times as many people use a food club each week as a food bank in Salford.
There is a local food club in the following areas:
- Broughton – higher and lower
- Eccles
- Langworthy
- Salford Precinct
- Little Hulton
- Ordsall
- Greengate
- Salford Crescent.
If you want to learn more about joining a food club and to know if your local food club is open to new members, just contact us.
Contact the Citizens Advice Healthy Holiday team. Just give us a call:
07494 498703 or 07494 498678 (We can call you back).
Or E-Mail: healthholidays@citizensadvicesalford.org.uk
Citizens Advice Center Greater Manchester Out of Hours Advice is open 7 days a week from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.