YARMOUTH & MAgdalen Foodbank
Pathway food bank
In response to overwhelming demand in the area for help, we opened our foodbank centre in March 2022.
It works in partnership with St Mary Magdalene Church in Gorleston, under the umbrella of The Trussell Trust.
The second and newest part of our service is the Yarmouth & Magdalen Food Bank providing a weekly service to help those in crisis. This emergency provision is open on Thursday mornings at our Admiralty Road base from 10am - 12 noon for Great Yarmouth NR30 postcode residents and in Gorleston NR31 7** or 8** postcode residents on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings from 9.30 - 11.30am at St Mary Magdalene Church in Magdalen Square NR31 7BZ (accessed via the Fastolff Avenue rear entrance) .
Our food bank services are run by our trained team of support officers and welfare staff, most of whom are dedicated volunteers. Pathway is supported by The Trussell Trust, which advises and facilitates some 1,200 emergency food banks across the UK. Having opened in early 2022, our food bank receives referrals from a local network of professionals within third party agencies and organisations such as social services, GPs and health workers, police officers, church leaders or charity fieldworkers. As a means-tested service, visitors cannot just turn up unexpectedly and ask for a food parcel, we operate within strict guidelines to ensure we only give the most appropriate support to the widest number of properly-assessed, vulnerable individuals and families. You can find out more of what a Trussell Trust food parcel entails and further background information about the Yarmouth & Magdalen food bank here on the Trussell Trust website.
Our local referrals are vital in ensuring we meet those in need, weekly interviews helping us to understand their particular circumstances and individual needs. When we meet with clients, it is not just providing them with essential provisions, we also discuss their situations and help make recommendations as well as signposting them to partner agencies, with the aim of resolving the crises they face. It is shocking that in the UK right now, more than 14 million people are living below the poverty line. At Pathway we want to help those suffering in need locally, right here here in our community among us. So let’s make a difference together in our community. If you or someone you know live in the Great Yarmouth and Magdalen area and need the help of our food bank, please first try to contact a local professional agency such as your doctor, the council, social services etc to get a referral. If a referral proves impossible to obtain, please do telephone or email us through the contact details below and we will do all we can to help.