Category: News

Anyone familiar with Exeter Food Action and who’s visited our warehouse or been a recipient of one of our many food deliveries, will no doubt have had the pleasure of meeting Wendy Kearns. Since October 2020 Wendy’s been one of our much-valued delivery drivers and, although she still is, we’re delighted to report that, since May, she’s also taken on an additional ten hours as EFA’s Volunteer Coordinator.

It’s evident from Wendy’s infectious positivity and kind nature that she is ideally suited to her new role. “I love working with our amazing volunteers and beneficiaries. It’s the vital work that we do and the fact that every day is different that gets me out of bed in the morning”.

It’s a bit odd to welcome someone who’s already here but I’m sure visitors to our website, as does everyone at EFA, will join us in wishing Wendy every success in her new role.

If you’d like to join our wonderful team of Exeter Food Action volunteers, we’d love to hear from you:

There’s no escaping the fact that food insecurity in the UK is on the rise. As reported in an earlier news post, in the first six months of this year alone, EFA distributed 70,000 kgs of food to the food banks and community groups we support. By the end of July, we had already exceeded last year’s total i.e. just seven months into the year.

We’re not alone in seeing such a steep rise in demand. Between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023, food banks in the Trussell Trust’s UK wide network distributed close to three million emergency food parcels to people facing hardship, an increase of 37% from the same period last year. More than one million of these parcels were distributed for children.

• One in seven people (14%) across the UK say that they or their household have experienced food insecurity over a twelve-month period, equating to an estimated 11.3 million people.
• Rates of food insecurity rise to almost one in three (30%) in the most deprived geographical areas of the UK.
• One in fourteen people (7%) report that they or their household have used at least one type of food aid in the last year, equating to an estimated 5.7 million people being supported by food aid.
• More than two thirds of people (71%) experiencing food insecurity have not used any form of food aid in the last year.
• Food banks in the Trussell Trust network distributed almost three million parcels in the year to April 2023, the most parcels ever distributed in a single year, and a 37% increase on 2021/22.

Figures courtesy of the Trussell Trust.

View/download the Trussell Trust report: ‘Hunger in the UK‘ (pdf).

The online Exeter City Football Club’s fans’ forum, ExeWeb, will be donating to us every time the Grecians score a goal in the 2023/24 season. For every goal scored, members have pledged to donate £1.00 each to Exeter Food Action to help us in our efforts to tackle food poverty and waste. And for fans unable to donate for every goal but who would still like to help, they’ve set up a dedicated donations page on Just Giving.

Even more reason to cheer on the Grecians now!

Our Summer 2023 newsletter is now available on our website and future issues will be too. You can download a copy here (pdf). The latest issue is bursting with news, with profiles of some of our amazing volunteers and various items of potential interest to readers, including a piece about the world’s first ever food bank, how footballers are doing their bit to help out, a new Kids Zone, and how we’re breaking records (see below).

We’re flying high!

We’re breaking records, although we’d rather not be because they reflect ever-rising demand. In the first half of this year we managed to get just under 70,000 kgs of food onto the tables of people who need it. This exceeds the total amount of food we were able to provide in the whole of the previous year. To provide some kind of context, an empty Airbus A320 passenger plane, as pictured below, weighs less at a mere 42,600 kgs!

Come and say hello to Exeter Food Action at Tesco Exe Vale (Tesco Extra) this Saturday August 6th.

We will be there from 10am until 4pm – come and say hello to the team and find out more about us. ?

We’re so grateful to be able to tell you that this summer sees our ten year anniversary of saving and sharing food in Exeter. We could not have done it without the incredible support of the people of Exeter. We’re also really keen to make ourselves be able to fulfil all the opportunities that we have, and we believe that if we can increase the amount of money given on a monthly basis by our incredible supporters, many things are possible.

So, welcome to our summer of fundraising! Our target is to raise £3000 per month being given in regular donations.

Please have a look at Jon’s video below and then visit our Donations page.

Thank you so much for your support!

We’re grateful that in this time of crisis, businesses are hoping to share food as they close to the public. Our recipients are also beginning to close, so we cannot guarantee that we are able to take this excess food, but we would like to hear from you to discuss. Our lives will be made much easier if you are able to deliver to us in Marsh Barton, but please make contact first.

Food that has a long life is most likely to be used and useful.

The best way to contact us is by email, either through Elizabeth – or Jon –

We will endeavour to get back to you as quickly as possible.

Many thanks.

Exeter Food Action

We’re holding our Annual General Meeting at Belmont Chapel on Thursday the 14th of November at 5:30pm. We’ll start with drinks and nibbles, before the meeting commences at 6pm. Everyone is welcome. If you’re hoping to attend, please email Jon on , so we have enough refreshments for everyone!

We’re delighted to tell you about our new Regular Giving Scheme. You can now support the work of Exeter Food Action by giving regularly via this link- Regular Giving Scheme

Our work grows year on year – saving food, stopping waste, and sharing it with the community. Your support is hugely valuable to us. Thanks so much.

Tis the season, and you can now download our Winter 2017 newsletter (pdf). In this edition:

• Innovations
• Pleas for help
• Report on our Annual Reception
• Update on Food Exeter (formerly the Exeter Food Network)
• EcoWaste4Food project

Also, a bonus quick report on some volunteer training we had recently. The manual handling of food is really important, both for the food but especially for EFA volunteers who regularly collect and distribute food in crates across Exeter. So Charles Nyeko’s training workshop for us on 2nd December was a really positive opportunity to meet one another and to learn more about the correct ways of lifting and moving boxes of produce.