Blackpool Food Partnership (BFP) is part of Methodist Action which is a registered charity dedicated to supporting those that need help the most including those suffering homelessness, poverty and exclusion. It aims to help people regain their confidence and to empower people so that they can get vital support or get back into work. The partnership works with Lancashire’s Sustainable Food Charter in mind to help improve the health, knowledge and skills of people living in Lancashire
BFP is a central point that has been working since 2013 to bring together different organisations across Blackpool that offer support and education to its 140,000+ residents. Nikki Hart and Su Oldroyd who run the partnership have worked hard to create a network that is supplied with the food required to run different services. They continue to connect organisations so that they can arrange support groups at times that are most beneficial to the community. BFP have regular meetings with all of its partners to work out a strategy to achieve its goals and to discuss what has been achieved and how each organisation can
contribute to making Blackpool a sustainable town. The partnership offers volunteering opportunities where volunteers visit companies three times a week to collect food donations and distribute food across the network.
Deprived members of the community can get in touch with the Discretionary team to req
uest financial support or a food parcel. Their needs are then assessed and all the relevant information goes on to the Blackpool Food Partnership where they make up the food parcel and deliver them to an organisation that will be able to offer support for any underlying causes for the person’s need for emergency food. The service user will then collect their parcel from that specified location and the service will be able to offer support for the other problems that the person may be facing. If it weren’t for the food partnership, each of the organisations would have to budget for buying food or would become rel
ant on donations, which can limit the variety and types of food that they can offer to service users. Organisations can request certain from the partnership to ensure they can provide healthy and filling meals for their service users.
Click on the links underneath each image to find out more about that organisation and how you can help out/find out more.
The Salvation Army – Bridge Project
