I wanted to introduce you to our fabulous staff team at Exeter Foodbank. It has been my job (Mark typing) to work with amazing people for the last six and half years and today…. we actually got a photo!!
So, from left to right:
Summer (Operations Manager) makes sure that everything runs smoothly and that volunteers know what they are doing. She makes everything work in foodbank. If there is a tin on a shelf at the time when it should be on the shelf and there is a smiley volunteer to hand it to a family… then Summer has had something to do with it. Oh, and the numerous other jobs that she gets on with each day too.
Mark (Strategic Director): I work on the more ‘outward facing’ things. So I talk to agencies, I talk to people like the council or referrers and make sure that we are all working together as well as possible to help the people of Exeter – oh, and I look at the overall journey of foodbank and try to steer that as well as writing silly things on facebook!
Phil (Logistics Worker) is always cheerful! Phil gets things done whether it is pumping up the van tyres of shifting tonnes of baked beans (please dont give us any more baked beans!) – or collecting from supermarkets or lugging crates about… Phil gets on with it and he makes all of our lives easier. I can’t remember how we managed without him!
Ali (Advice Worker): If I was to say one thing about Ali it is that there are people living happily in their homes today because of the amazing work that Ali does with people. What more can we say?! Ali has helped to change Exeter Foodbank from ‘fire fighting’ into ‘fire prevention’. We are now a more holistic charity which does significant advice and support work in collaboration with local agencies.
Fiona is new(ish) to the team. As our Admin, Fiona holds it all together. If you have ever worked in an office you will know that the Admin is the one person that nothing can operate successfully without… that is Fiona! Because of Fiona’s role, volunteers arrive to collect, sort, distribute food and the sessions all run.
John (JR) is our Store Manager. Our store is amazingly organised! At busy times of the year we have four of five tonnes of food coming in and going out each week. We are a small, volunteer-led charity and we all work part-time. Somehow, as if by magic, John makes all of this happen smoothly. To this day, I have no idea how he does this in the time that he has!
This team has grown this year as demand for support from Foodbank is so high and we are so busy. I inherited my role from a lady called Joy, who was also amazing and we stand on the work done by her, Laura and Sophie, who have also been part of our story.
So that is our Staff Team.
We are all part-time. We are all passionate about the work that we do and we believe that nobody in Exeter should have no food.
We know that foodbanks are not the answer.
We know that they should NOT exist – but while they do, we will continue to give it our very best.
I do not know how they get all of the work done that they manage!
If you felt that you needed to give them a like… go for it! These people are amazing
