The remarkable woman behind Guildford's largest independent food bank that serves thousands

In the year to March 2025 the North Guildford Food Bank provided over 2,200 free food parcels to those locally in great need, enough to feed some 3,500 adults and 2,500 children for a week. The scale of the operation to do this, involving some 115 volunteers every week, is truly impressive and a remarkable contrast to the early days. In its first full year in 2013, there were just 258 parcels, feeding 411 adults and 410 children. So how did the food bank begin and why has it grown so rapidly?

It was Ann Mather who, in 2012, took the lead in developing the project from the outset. Inspired by her Christian faith to serve the community, she initially met with the Minister of Westborough United Reformed Church and the Vicar of St Clare’s Park Barn. These discussions led her to research the needs of the community with local organisations and residents. Isolation and debt emerged as key factors, so often resulting in families and single parents being unable to feed themselves and their children adequately. The idea of starting a community food bank was born.

In Autumn 2012, Ann contacted the Trussell Trust who run many food banks nationwide and also the Salvation Army which runs a food bank in central Guildford, to tap into their experience. Informed and encouraged, she decided to start a local one in Park Barn, independently managed so as to be able to respond to its community needs. Word spread quickly and before any organisation had been formed, local churches and organisations were already asking when it would! Ann worshipped at St Saviour’s Church in the heart of the town and their clergy, staff and congregation provided the initial support to start up. The nucleus of a team was formed; the church was the first to offer its harvest festival donations; and at a Sunday morning service the North Guildford Food Bank was publicly launched. The next weeks were to be a whirlwind.

Armed with little more than a notebook and a few spreadsheets Ann set about turning the concept into a reality. St Clare’s provided its church as a base for storage and distribution. Four churches provided their harvest festival donations and enthusiastic volunteers. A member of St Saviour’s congregation worked for Clyde & Co. Solicitors, who after a brief presentation, provided the printing of flyers and other materials for free.  They still donate to our food bank today!  Ann then met with a local Surrey County Councillor who secured a £1,000 grant that funded the purchase and installation of storage racks. Tesco in Park Barn donated £150 for food. Individuals from the churches also made cash gifts to cover other equipment and essentials. And so it was, by one means or another, the North Guildford Food Bank miraculously opened its doors for the first time on Wednesday 5th December 2012. 

At that first session there were just two clients. In those early days in 2012 Ann approached a number of organisations such as schools, GPs, Citizens’ Advice Bureau, Social Services and similar for their help.  It was these organisations who would refer their clients to the food bank for a food parcel.   

Today the food bank has grown to embrace 135 different organisations from which more than 500 staff are empowered to refer their clients for food parcels.  

Technology has played a big part in this, helping the food bank to expand its capacity and services. Now, a referrer can fill in an on-line form that allows the packing teams to only select items that the client wants. It allows referrers and clients to indicate whether the client is vegetarian for example or needs pet food. And for those with a baby they can specify what size nappies they require.  This all means that the packing teams can prepare the parcels so that they are ready when the client arrives at St Clare’s.  It’s a big change from the early years of the food bank, when two volunteers would sit down with a client when they arrived. Their job was to find out what the client wanted, so that one could go off and pack whilst the other continued listening and chatting to them. However, the importance of spending quality time with each client remains a core part of the food bank’s outreach. Even though pre-packing means their food parcel is normally ready on arrival, clients are still welcomed by a volunteer who offers a free drink and a vital service in chatting to them and understanding their circumstances. Given that isolation has always been one of the main causes of poverty, the value of a “listening ear” should never be underestimated. In many cases, the volunteer can also provide additional and indeed invaluable information, signposting them to other organisations who can support them in specific areas.  A good example is the link-up to both Energy Manage and the Fuel Foundation through which clients can get help with their utility bills.     

After 5 years, Ann had to step back from leading the food bank due to ill health. She handed over to two long term volunteers, Rosie and Heather. They made a huge contribution introducing a lot of technology and data protection compliant systems. In due course Rosie stepped back from leading but still continues as a volunteer. Heather formed a team around her until her tragic and untimely death whilst at a food bank session. Jo then stepped in on an interim basis and guided the ever growing food bank until today’s manager, Jessica was appointed two years ago.

In the evolution of the food bank, Ann recalls two key moments that have helped significantly.  Firstly, she mentioned her joy in persuading Sainsbury’s Burpham to allow the food bank to start collections and also to display signs informing shoppers what particular items are needed at any one time.  Now there are collection points in Waitrose and Pets at Home as well.  Many enthusiastic businesses, churches and faith groups, clubs and individuals have and continue to provide donations. It is a wonderfully diverse network ranging for example from the Ahmaydiyya Muslim Youth Association based at the Mubarak Mosque in Tilford, to the local Harley Davidson group: the Hogs Back Chapter. Each one has played their part on the journey. One of the greatest joys is when a previous client has emerged from their crisis and comes in with a donation to give back for others in need.

Secondly Ann specifically expressed her gratitude to the Guildford Lions. In 2014 the food bank provided chickens at Christmas for clients (today clients are given Tesco vouchers instead).  Guildford Lions said they would donate potatoes and carrots alongside the chickens.  That Christmas came and went, but the Guildford Lions have kept donating every week since – potatoes, carrots and eggs with other fresh produce purchased using donor funding.

Ann is ever thankful for so many people who helped start, grow and sustain the food bank. There are simply too many to list!  She did, however, want to mention one particular volunteer - Fran Handrick.  Fran met with Ann when the food bank first opened and explained that she was having treatment for cancer and that she liked to bake.  For 5 years until she moved away, Fran baked wonderful cakes and biscuits every week for the food bank’s clients to enjoy, whilst they were chatting to volunteers and waiting for their parcels.  Fran told Ann that her time at the food bank as a volunteer helped her tremendously in her recovery as she dealt with chemotherapy.  Her gift of baking and faithful service touched everyone she met. 

Today, Ann still holds a prominent position as one of the ten Team Leaders running three client sessions each week. On being asked how she feels now about what she has achieved Ann said “My feelings are bittersweet.  Whilst I am proud that the food bank has helped so many people, the demand for our services has grown dramatically and I am saddened that there are still so many people who are struggling and need our help”.   

If you have been inspired by the food bank please consider donating or volunteering.

The above article was written by one of our volunteers Steve, with the support of Ann and her husband Clive. This article has also been published in the regional “Pages” distributed to households in Guildford, including Burpham Pages, Surrey Advertiser and Surrey Live.

Thank you to donors - July 2025

With the help of you, our wonderful donors and our volunteers, this year we have supported even more people in need. Every pound and tin donated and each hour given by volunteers contributes towards ensuring no-one in our community goes hungry and that they have enough gas or electricity to cook meals for their families. For this we are truly grateful.

As you can see from our graph and the attached statistics page, this year has been busier than we have seen in the past. So far this year, demand has increased by 5% on last year, when we saw a huge increase of up to 27%. With your support, we have not had to make the difficult decisions some food banks in the country are having to make, of changing their offering as they don't have resources to cope with demand. Thank you.

I would like to provide you with a few highlights from our year so far.

National volunteer week

We were blessed to have a visit from Peter Cluff, High Sheriff of Guildford and his wife during National Volunteer week in June. We spent time talking about our work and they saw the food bank in action, packing parcels and greeting and supporting clients. 

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Some of our Tuesday volunteer team, with Jessica, Peter Cluff and Geoff, our Chair of Trustees

Energy Manage project

Our 3 month trial of support for clients who are billed for their energy was very successful with 75 clients being referred for support. 

The trustees agreed to extend the project to the end of 2025, with a review in the third quarter. To date over 100 clients have been referred, with combined fuel debt of £45,000

The support we provide funding for, via Energy Manage, is a payment to the client's energy account, where appropriate and then advice on a range of issues including payment plans and tariffs. This may sound simple, but can often be very complex. The case study below is for a current client who we are supporting via Energy Manage. We have had their consent to provide you with this information.

Client referred to us with high arrears of over £7000 having fled a violent relationship and having suffered financial abuse. 

We have provided 4 face to face appointments and a series of support telephone calls to help the client address the issues around their energy account and to offer general support through this difficult time. We have supported the client in making a hardship fund claim to address the energy arrears (decision pending) as well as providing energy advice and resources for savings moving forward. We have added the client to the Priority Service Register, they are on the cheapest energy tariff (and available social tariffs) and helped set up a payment plan to prevent further energy arrears. 

In addition, clothing support has been arranged for their child, as well as providing an air fryer and microwave to further support energy savings. We have also been providing ongoing support to help keep the client on track during this time.

The client has also been referred to further budgeting support and will be attending one of our energy support workshops later this year.

Energy Manage are experts in accessing grants and resources. A small example of this is Love Your Neighbour, which is part of The Lighthouse project, who can provide energy saving devices such as air-fryers and electric blankets. This has been a brilliant support for some of our clients working with Energy Manage.

As you can see, this support can be life changing. This is a project which we would love to continue in the coming years, due to the long term impact it can provide for these individuals and families.

IT System - potential change

We have been very fortunate to have volunteers willing and able to set up and maintain a client referral system for us, which enabled us to keep running effectively when COVID hit. We have continued to use the same Google form/sheets system since. It is great and relatively versatile, but can also be unstable and is prone to glitches that only one volunteer is able to fix! We are therefore looking at moving to new software in the next few months that will ultimately (following a training period) reduce the time our team leaders spend preparing for a client session, provide secure referrer log in and enable us to manage our stock more effectively. The software we are currently looking at is relatively low cost and we are looking to fund this from a grant, or specific donations, to ensure that all current funds donated continue to be spent on supporting our clients and our current overheads. 

Volunteers wanted 

Due to the continued high demand we are seeing and a natural turnover of volunteers, we are currently looking to recruit volunteers to talk with our clients in the cafe when they come to collect their parcels and for drivers to deliver parcels to those who are unable to come to the food bank to collect. 

We are currently in need of:

• Cafe Listeners and Drivers on Tuesdays 12.45 - 3pm,

• Cafe Listeners on Wednesdays 8.30 - 10.30am and

• Cafe Listeners and Drivers on Fridays 4.45 - 7pm

Details of the roles are available on the Vacancies page of our website vacancies

Please share this with anyone you know who is looking for a volunteering role in the near future. If you are a member of a local organisation, please share this with them too. We also have a Facebook post which you can share. It is pinned to our page here https://www.facebook.com/NorthGuildfordFoodBank 
 

I would love to have a chat with interested people about joining our team 😊

The Big Give

We are considering running our Christmas fundraising campaign with The Big Give. We will be back in touch with more information on this nearer the time.

We will be back in touch with you in late August regarding organising any donations from your Harvest Festival events.

Thank you again for everything that you do to support us and our clients, we are blessed to have you with us.

Very best wishes

Jessica

Manager

07538 413525

jessica@ngfoodbank.co.uk

Last year was Guildford food bank's 'busiest' year and 'the trend is continuing' says manager

Local reporter Josephe Bickle visited North Guildford Food Bank in April 2025 and you can read his article here: https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/last-year-guildford-food-banks-31326630?utm_source=mynewsassistant.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=embedded_search_item_desktop