Margate Independent Foodbank CIC Need your support

Why food banks need financial donations, too

The answer is that your food donation is definitely helpful, but you shouldn’t forget about giving cash as well (if you can). “We could not distribute the amount of food that we do to the communities that we do without raising food from community members,” says John Finnegan ,  director of Margate Independent Foodbank Community Interest Company . That’s because the cost of purchasing the food their users need far exceeds their operating budget from donations.

But canned goods are not enough.  says food banks like Margate Independent Foodbank desperately need financial donations too, for several reasons. The first is to pay running costs to run the operation. “There’s a whole infrastructure that’s required to make sure, beyond just receiving the donation, that food is safely processed and distributed into our community,” he says. Money is also a good donation option because the vast amount of food donations arrive between November and Christmas, and having cash on hand helps them buy food during the remaining months, since people are hungry year-round. It also helps them buy supplies to meet specific clients’ needs, such as culturally appropriate foods. In addition, food banks are able to look for discounts and purchase food at wholesale, which means they are able to get more out of that Pound than a person shopping retail probably could.