Grant awarded: £30,000 a year for 3 years: 2022-2025 - unrestricted; Cost of Living uplift grant for Year 2 £2,370; £20,000 for 2025-2026 - unrestricted
Spring has seen rapid growth in delivery and impact since 2019 through excellent leadership by its CEO and its dedicated team of staff, volunteers and board members, many with experience of the challenges clients face. During and after the Covid pandemic it expanded its core activity as a food bank so it could address the root causes of food poverty and needs of clients in a culturally sensitive manner. Spring has done this by delivering Holiday Clubs, advice sessions (including in partnership with Citizens Advice Bureau and Southwark Law Centre), training, support groups and by creating community. For example, the number of holiday clubs Spring runs to enable parents to work, has increased from 3-5 clubs to 13 clubs.
Its new premises have created a Social Supermarket with a shop front, enabling those experiencing food poverty to access support with dignity and choice. Spring is a learning organisation reflecting continually on its work and the difference its making and Southwark Council shares Spring’s example as a model of best practice.
The Peter Minet Trust has helped me to grow as a CEO and given me the trust I need to see funders as partners....They don’t ask us for too much and they don’t create unnecessary monitoring, I feel like they really trust us.’...They have helped us to reflect inwards and to grow and to see the charity as a business, which feels more sustainable - Felicia Boshorin, CEO
Felicia’s reflections on funding
- Unrestricted, multi-year funding – helps us focus on client needs, not the funder – and do our job; we can cover essential costs, pay the rent and grow; we can try things that might take time to work
- Trust – it’s motivating and gives our staff and volunteers confidence to know they’re trusted
- Inflation – link grants to inflation. Our costs and day-to-day costs of our clients go up as well.
- Introductions to funders – help with applying for bigger pots of money and help us be sustainable
- Seat at the table – we want to be there when funders and statutory authorities are meeting and talking about need in the borough
- Funders need to adapt as well – change as our community changes and keep touching relevant lives
It isn’t just about giving food, it was also about giving people a chance to rebuild their lives after incredible hardship…building confidence is vital in addressing the root causes of food poverty.....Trust us to know best what our community needs - Felicia Boshorin, CEO, Spring Community Hub
Read more from Felicia Boshorin, CEO of Spring Community Hub about the impact of unrestricted grants in Under the Bonnet of unrestricted with Peter Minet and Partners published by IVAR here.