Foodbank to extend delivery of financial inclusion project in collaboration with Citizen’s Advice

A local foodbank is celebrating the success of a financial inclusion project by seeing the number of service users reduce.

Corby Foodbank, part of Trussell, introduced the initiative in 2022 in collaboration with Citizen’s Advice as a way of helping people tackle the issues that may lead to them needing to use the foodbank service. This included finding ways to reduce their outgoings or increase their income through advice and knowledge-based signposting.

The project has been a massive success. After previously seeing an exponential rise in the number of Corby Foodbank clients year-on-year, the financial inclusion project has seen numbers reduce significantly. In the last year alone, the number of clients using Corby Foodbank has gone from 3,500 clients in 2023 to just below 3,000 in 2024.

The project has been fully funded by Trussell, with the organisation purchasing hours of time from Citizen’s Advice, which allows for a dedicated advisor to host an in-person clinic at all foodbank sessions.

However, in July, the current partnership with Trussell will end, and its funding will drop from 100 per cent to 50 per cent.

Now, the foodbank is hoping to secure more investment to fill that 50 per cent shortfall, so that the financial inclusion project can continue.

Mary Collier, Financial Inclusion Manager for Trussell, said: “Foodbanks do such an incredible job in supporting people, but our vision is to see the UK not needing them. One of the only ways we can do that is by people having access to mainstream support. Already we’ve seen huge changes, it’s really made a big impact for people.

“The work that Citizen’s Advice does helps to maximise people’s income and help with their debt management. It’s so important that this relationship continues between all parties, including the people seeking support, because they build such valuable relationships with the advisors.”

Martin Langford, Corby Foodbank manager, said: “The financial inclusion project has directly resulted in a decrease in the number of people using our foodbank. This is after exponential rises year-on-year before its implementation.

“Projects like this have been funded by Trussell in other parts of the UK too and we are seeing the same trend nationally. The results speak for themselves.

“We know working with Citizen’s Advice is driving down numbers and tackling the cause of food poverty. This service is so integral to what we do now that I can’t imagine not providing it. In an ideal world, I would love to secure the services of Citizen’s Advice for another three years. To do that we need to fill that funding gap.”

If you are an organisation who could help Corby Foodbank by funding the continuation of the Financial Inclusion Project with Citizen’s Advice, email [email protected].

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