FFA is a charity which aims to promote community engagement, awareness and relief of food poverty in Bristol, through local networking and the collection of food and other vital supplies for distribution to community partners working with families and children in poverty and in need.
How FFA works
FFA street collectors bring donations of food and toiletries to the sorting hub each week
The sorting hub is hosted by the Ardagh Community Trust on Horfield Common Kellaway Avenue BS6 7YL
Donations, including those bought with the financial donations e.g. eggs and dairy produce, are allocated according to our partners’ wish lists.
The donations are bagged up and loaded into volunteer drivers’ cars…
…and taken to the partner organisations for them to distribute to families in need or used to provide healthy meals.
Bulk orders of fresh fruit and vegetables funded by our financial donations are delivered direct to partners
Food is then used to produce meals (at Felix Road and the Vench), or distributed to families though weekly Food Clubs (at St Pauls, Southmead and the Vench) or through the school at (May Park.)
Each week, we collect donated food and toiletries from communities in the North Bristol area through a network of neighbourhood volunteers. After collection, donations are taken to a sorting hub for allocation to our community partners who work directly with families and children in poverty. (see below)
We also collect financial donations which are used to source bulk fresh produce, fruit, vegetables, eggs and dairy products, from local suppliers for delivery to our partners.
Our partners distribute weekly donated and purchased food to families in need. Our current partners, who all serve families in areas of high deprivation and food insecurity in Bristol, are The Vench Adventure Playground in Lockleaze, St. Paul’s and Southmead Children’s Centres, Felix Road Adventure Playground, Easton, and May Park Primary school, Easton. We maintain communication between food and financial donors, community partners and the families they support through partner-liaison volunteers and monthly newsletters. This strengthens links between more affluent and less advantaged neighbourhoods, generates conversations about food poverty and raises awareness of local inequalities in access to food.
“In the most deprived wards in Bristol, 1 in 8 households experience moderate to severe food poverty. Around 1/3 of all Bristol’s children are at risk of food insecurity1 and numbers of children eligible to claim free school meals (children in families with less than £7,400 per annum income before benefits) have risen 20% in the last 2 years’.
1 lacking secure access to enough safe and nutritious food for normal growth and development and an active and healthy life