Moray Food Plus provides a variety of services to those either experiencing or at risk of food insecurity. We also work with partners to reduce the amount of local food waste taking surplus food and redistributing it amongst the community.
Food poverty is on the increase in Moray. Moray Food Plus is working hard to support people who through no fault of their own find themselves in crisis. Reasons for this are varied but include changes in personal circumstances, illness, welfare reform, low income, and unexpected bills.
The crisis service works on a referral basis from agencies such as social work, housing and health; please contact us for more information. Once a referral is received a team of volunteers make up a food parcel containing three days’ worth of food – we can also supply pet and baby food on request. In exceptional circumstances, or for remote locations, we can deliver to people’s houses; we can also deliver to a referrer, an agreed collection point, or parcels can be collected from the office.
How does your organisation implement/promote cash first approaches?
We have a money advice service and are able to offer one-to-one support to people looking at benefit reviews, income maximisation and budgeting support. Although we don’t offer debt advice we can work with people to prepare them to access other local services. We are able to refer people using our foodbank service and other projects but we also work with many partner agencies to support their clients. In addition to the one-to-one support we do workshops and talks raising awareness of what support is available particularly highlighting underclaimed benefits.
What are some of the challenges you are facing in implementing cash first?
We are a very limited resource as we only have one member of staff dedicated to the money advice work and demand can be very high. Cases are becoming more complex and can emotionally take their toll on the staff member. They can also be very time consuming and the length of time for a decision to be made regarding a claim can take up to 1 year which can be very stressful for the client involved.
Have you used any particular resource that helped you take a cash first approach or helped you work through these challenges?
We link in with the CPAG resources particularly the Welfare Benefits Handbook; we have also found their advice line to be helpful.
What is one piece of advice you would give to someone who wishes to implement a Cash first approach for the first time?
Be prepared for the complexity of people’s cases and the length of time it can take to complete benefit forms.
What have you learned from your implementation of cash first approaches?
It works! In our first year we recovered over £466,000 in unclaimed benefits and grants, increasing to over £1m in our second year. For clients that had been receiving foodbank support, after their benefits had been reviewed and maximised they no longer needed the food support.
We recently received funding from the Energy Industry Voluntary Redress Scheme to develop an energy advice service which has broadened the cash first support we are able to offer.