PATHWAY TO A BETTER FUTURE

As the old adage goes, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you get rid of him for the weekend.” 

Jokes aside, feeding people by giving out food solves a short-term problem, but hunger is rarely a short-term issue. Over the past 3 years, Coventry foodbank has been running an additional service called ‘Pathfinder’, which aims to journey alongside people facing food crisis and help them to address some of the root causes that have led them to need to use the foodbank.

Foodbank+

Hugh McNeill, who runs the Pathfinder Project in Coventry shares, “We see all sorts of people needing to use the foodbank, and all sorts of circumstances that have brought them here. It’s almost always because of money – someone has lost their job, or had their benefits cut or removed completely. Or increasingly, mental or physical health problems are preventing someone from being able to work. These are issues that don’t go away with a food parcel.”

Pathfinder starts with someone being offered a phone call with one of the team of Pathfinder volunteers. The team will assess the needs of the individual and signpost them to additional support.

“Often, people don’t know what support is available to them”, Hugh continued. “The Government offers help to those on a low-income, aside from Universal Credit, but if you don’t know it’s there, you can’t necessarily find it. We also signpost people to other help services, like Debt Advice from CAP or support from Citizens Advice.”

The Pathfinder Project has made a significant impact on those needing to use the foodbank. Indeed, foodbank use has dropped in Coventry over the past two years.

“A couple of years ago, we were feeding about 800 people a week”, shares Hugh. “That figure is now around 500 people a week. There are a number of factors that have driven that, but the impact of Pathfinder is definitely one of them. Since starting the phone callback service, we’ve managed to put over £1.4M of financial benefit back into the pockets of foodbank users.”