Foodbank

In response to the rising levels of food poverty in our community, BDCA and Bonny Downs Baptist Church teamed up to launch a food bank in 2013. It has been open ever since and, sadly, food poverty has continued to increase.

At the food bank, our team of compassionate local volunteers provide guests with who cannot afford to feed themselves and their children emergency food parcels, along with a free hot lunch to eat onsite.

In April 2022, our food bank joined the Trussell Trust network. Around 2 in 3 food banks in the UK are part of this network, and joining has several advantages for both our team and our guests which you can read more about here.

Here’s a short video by local film maker Jeremy Acott showing our service in action!

Do you need an emergency food parcel?

If so, this section is for you – please read it carefully before visiting our food bank.

• Our food bank is open on Wednesdays from 11.30am – 2pm at Bonny Downs Baptist Church, 18 Darwell Close, East Ham, E6 6BT.
• We provide guests with a food parcel containing three day’s worth of emergency food, and a light lunch.
• To receive your food parcel, you must be referred by a referral partner. You can arrange this by booking an appointment with a frontline care professional who knows about your situation.
• We are also able to refer you to other specialist advisors, to help you through the challenges you are facing. If your circumstances improve, we can refer you to a food club for longer-term support too.

Some examples of professionals who can provide you with a referral voucher include: your doctor, social worker, a family support worker at your child’s school or your job centre case worker. 

If you are not sure how to get a voucher, you can call the Trussell Trust free helpline on 0808 2082138 (open Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm) to speak confidentially to a trained Citizens Advice adviser. They will talk to you about the problems you’re facing and, if you need one, provide a voucher you can use at our food bank.

We continue to provide a free community lunch to all who visit our food bank. If you are unsure about anything, please feel free to come along, have something to eat and chat with one of our friendly staff and volunteers.

We look forward to welcoming you to the food bank soon!

Are you a referring organisation?

We warmly welcome referrals to the food bank from frontline professionals. In order to make the process efficient for everyone and remove the need for paper, we operate an online referral process.

If you are a current referral partner, you should already be using our online portal. But should you have any questions or need any help you are very welcome to contact us.

We also welcome new referral partners for our food bank! To come on board, please contact us and we’ll explain how to join our online portal to make referrals online quickly and easily.

To get in contact, you can either email us or call 07737 054388 or 07723 134633.

Would you like to donate to our food bank?

The most efficient way to support us is to donate money online by clicking here. This means we can use your gift to purchase the items we need most at a given time.

We also welcome food and toiletry donations in person, and online supermarket deliveries at the food bank on Wednesdays between 9am-1pm (only).

The kind of items you can donate are listed below but our needs do change from time to time, therefore please check our Facebook or Twitter first for any recent updates:

Contact us by email if you would like more information about our food bank.