We’re closing our food bank to focus on reaching young people sooner

After extensive consultation with local young people as part of our new five-year strategy, we’ve made the decision to close our food bank as part of a new focus on earlier intervention. It’s a change that reflects what we’ve always been about: helping young people sooner and more effectively, offering support before crisis escalates.

The young people we spoke to told us, consistently, that if they’d been supported before crisis hit, they could have avoided homelessness altogether.

The underlying causes of youth homelessness haven’t changed. Family breakdown, domestic abuse and poor mental health remain as present as ever. But the way young people want to access support has shifted significantly. We’ve seen a marked decline in the number of young people using our food bank, a trend other local food banks are reporting too. We’re not yet sure why this shift has happened, but it’s become clear that our food bank is no longer a service young people under 25 frequently turn to.

As part of our commitment to designing our services around what young people actually need, we’ve taken the decision to close the food bank and direct those resources towards our early intervention work — helping to prevent homelessness before it happens.

In the coming months, we’ll be launching an exciting new early intervention project in partnership with local schools, designed to identify and support young people long before they reach crisis point.

Our core work continues as before: helping young people to sustain safe and stable homes.

We know food poverty remains a real issue in our community. Bromsgrove is supported by two other local organisations providing food support, and we’ll signpost any young person who needs emergency food to these services. We’d encourage our previous food bank donors to consider supporting these organisations directly.

Alternative local food banks include:

NewStarts – 1 Sherwood Rd, Bromsgrove B60 3DR Tel: 01527 882410 Email: admin@newstarts.org.uk

Catshill Foodbank – Catshill Baptist Church, Milton Rd, Catshill, Bromsgrove B61 0NA Tel: 07754 567800 (10am–4pm Mon–Wed) Email: foodbank@catshillbaptist.org.uk

Our CEO, Caleb Mallard, said of this new direction,

“It is crucial that we respond to what young people want, not what we think they need. We are incredibly grateful for the support our community has shown us over the years, and we hope people will continue to stand alongside us as we begin this new chapter, helping more young people earlier and preventing homelessness before it starts.”

If you have any questions regarding this, please get in touch with us by emailing info@basementproject.org.uk