In March we welcomed a team of volunteers from the UK branch of Reinsurance Group of America, Incorporated (RGA) to help at Bow Foodbank, they were a great help to sort and prepare stock ready for distribution to guests the next day. In addition to helping us get sorted for the next day’s guests, they did something a little extra for us too. 

Shocked by the scale of the provision we make for our guests every week, they were motivated to delve a little deeper and fully understand and reflect on the experience that guests might journey through. Six members of the team each took home a bag with regular items along with some of our standard extra pantry and personal care items, to see how they could manage with just these provisions over 3-days as our bags are intended to be used. 

Our standard bags include: 

• 1 box of cereal 
• 1 litre of milk 
• 1 tin tomatoes 
• 1 tin vegetables
• 1 tin pulses 
• 2 tins meat/fish or extra pulses and vegetables if guests choose a vegetarian bag 

In addition, guests can choose one pantry item from this list: 

• Tea 
• Coffee 
• Sugar 
• Juice 
• Oil 

Then one of either: 

• Rice 
• Pasta 

And one personal care item: 

• Washing powder
• Washing up liquid
• Toilet paper 
• Toothpaste 
• Shower gel 
• Shampoo 
• Deodorant 

Plus, fresh fruit and veg, period products and if they have children, they will receive an extra bag with additional food items and nappies if requested. 

Our team work hard to ensure that guests can rely on a consistent provision of food that helps them to plan their meals, supplemented with extras where we can so they maintain a level of variety, autonomy and ultimately dignity. This also helps our purchasing power so we can get good value for money and support more people. 

There were insights from the off, the person who volunteered to take the bags back to the office was shocked by how heavy they were. Tinned goods are easiest for the foodbank to manage and store with limited facilities, and their weight soon adds up. So challenge number one was getting them all back home, and there were clear patterns in the experiences of the RGA team. 

Logistics can be tricky – Our bag contents are carefully curated for nutritional content, value for money, versatility and stable shelf life. We use a lot of tinned and bulk foods, so our bags can be quite heavy. 

“The team made it all really easy for us. I was surprised by how big the bag was, and how heavy.” 

Planning is everything – to ensure they got the most out of the bag contents they needed to plan and prepare things in advance. 

“What struck me was the amount of planning and preparation involved – planning each breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack. For people in an already stressful situation the extra mental load must be hard, and getting in from a long day and needing to then prepare things” 

“The need to take time to plan meals, we have clearly become very lazy at home as always something available you can ‘just eat’.” 

“Making sure you have something already made for the morning… and rice batch cooked for lunches and dinners. Meals became repetitive, and I was envious of people when passing restaurants on the way home. I forgot to take lunch in one day – that was a long day. 

Adaptable ingredients – Things like oats were appreciated as they can be used in lots of different ways. 

“very grateful for the amount of food that we were given, the bag of porridge oats was particularly useful as breakfast and to make ‘pudding’ so we were not hungry”   

It’s particularly challenging for families… 

It was harder than they thought it would be to rely on the bag contents for 3 days… 

“I thought we would handle this easily – we make most of our meals from scratch, we don’t get Deliveroo or other food packages, and we have a full pantry of things to cook from… In reality – It was much harder”  

“This really opened our minds to how difficult it is for people… The lack of variety in the meals, bread, and dairy to be able to offer the children. The lack of hygiene/personal items that you would have.” 

Reflections – Understanding the restrictions that come with the bag contents has made the volunteers take a fresh approach to their own cooking and shopping habits. 

“Since doing the challenge we have changed some of our habits and, we make sure we contribute to our local foodbank when we go shopping now.” 

“We often donate food and it’s usually pasta, cereal, canned tomatoes, etc… but we now think about what special extras we could add, or the toiletries side, that we’d never considered before.” 

“Thanks for the opportunity, it’s been a real eye-opener for us” 

“We have a better understanding of the work that Bow and other Food Banks do for the community, and are grateful to be able to explain this to others fortunate enough not to rely on their incredible support” 

Volunteers from all walks of life join us weekly and are often shocked by our operation’s scale. Sadly, in the ten years Bow Foodbank has been in existence the need to support our neighbours with food security has not abated.  

In addition to providing guests with emergency food support our dedicated community of volunteers signpost healthcare services, financial advice, and help finding work among others. As a small team, we are grateful for all the support we receive from the corporate and community partners to help keep our offer running for guests. Thank you, team RGA for taking the time to support us and reflect on your experiences. 

Are you curious about volunteering with us as a team? Click here to find out more or email us at info@bowfoodbank.org.