BS4 Food Outlet - Collaborating for the Community
Community serving community at the BS4 Foodbank Outlet
Every week at St Barnabas Church in Knowle West, volunteers from the local community gather to run one of South Bristol's most remarkable foodbanks - and what they've built goes far beyond emergency food.
The BS4 Foodbank Outlet is part of the South and East Bristol Food Bank Network, run by Bristol charity inHope and affiliated with the national Trussell Trust. It opened during the first weeks of the pandemic in March 2020, when volunteers from Severn Vineyard, St Barnabas, and Field and Lighthouse Vineyard Churches spotted that BS4 - a postcode without a major supermarket - had almost no local food provision for families in crisis. In October 2022, they moved to a face-to-face clinic at St Barnabas, and what they created is something more than a drop-off point. It's a gathering place.
"We always make sure there's homemade cakes, hot cheese toasties, lots of tea and coffee, lots of smiles, lots of laughter and listening ears," says the outlet's co-ordinator - Kate MacLeod.
"And sometimes that's literally all people need. They need to have a place where they can come and be heard."
Alongside the warmth, the practical provision is striking. As well as core food parcels, guests can collect fresh vegetables from a local greengrocers, organic produce from community market garden Lush Greens, bread from a well-known Bristol bakery, and frozen meals prepared by Redcatch Community Garden and the Square Food Foundation. There are also toiletries and pet food - a supply chain built almost entirely on local relationships.
"What's wonderful about this is it's networks of people from within the BS4 community, taking care of the BS4 community" adds Kate.
The numbers tell a sobering story. Last year, the outlet distributed around 1,500 food parcels - enough to feed approximately 2,450 adults and 1,450 children. That's an average of 70 people every week accessing emergency food in this one small area of Bristol alone, a 39% increase on three years earlier.
The team has always understood that food is rarely the whole picture. A financial inclusion worker and an empowerment volunteer help guests access wider support - debt advice, benefits checks, housing help. In a single year, that work secured over £102,000 in savings and benefits for 217 clients.
"When you're hungry and you don't know how to feed yourself or your family, it's really hard to think about ways to find a way forward. But by coming here, it gives people permission to talk about the things they're struggling with - and suddenly they feel as though it's possible."
One moment captures it simply. A woman arrived recently, collected her food parcel, and walked away with bags in front of her, bags behind her, bags on both arms. At the door, she turned back.
"I feel so much lighter," she said.
For more information visit https://eastbristol.foodbank.org.uk/locations/
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