Departing Aylesbury Mayor's project smashes donation target supporting town's food bank

Aylesbury Town Council has announced the results of its year-long campaign to support the local food bank.

Departing town mayor Councillor Tim Dixon launched a donation challenge a year ago to support Aylesbury Foodbank.

At the start of his tenure Councillor Dixon launched the Mayor’s 10 tonne Challenge.Aylesbury Town Council has announced that the amount of food collected was 57.238 tonnes, and £34,924, which will be used to buy food during the year to meet the increasing needs of Aylesbury people.

Over the last year, Councillor Dixon has worked tirelessly for Aylesbury Foodbank, attending well over 200 events on the food bank’s behalf, and engaged with Cubs, Scouts and other Youth, Civic and local businesses to secure their support.

‘We are delighted with the support Tim has given us, he has taken us to people we have often struggled to get our message across to, and the response from the Aylesbury Public has been astounding,” said Kevin Piper, chair of trustees for Aylesbury Foodbank.

“These donations represented about six months' worth of food and were over 60% of all the food collected this year. We are currently using up to 10 tonnes of food every month to meet the needs in Aylesbury, and Tim’s' contribution through this challenge has been crucial to meeting this increased need this year.

“He has left us a legacy of an engaged public that can now donate food in over 70 donation stations throughout Aylesbury set up as part of the 10 tonnes challenge. We aim to build on the momentum created by Tim and his team.

“A big thanks from all Aylesbury Foodbank users, and from staff and volunteers” to Cllr Tim Dixon. You have done Aylesbury proud.” Said Kevin Piper

For further information contact Kevin via email here.

Despite the success of the 10 Tonne Challenge, Aylesbury Foodbank is struggling to meet growing demands for its services.

Aylesbury Foodbank has seen a 37% increase in the number of emergency food parcels distributed.

More food parcels than ever have been delivered by the food bank in Aylesbury.

Heather-Joy Garrett, Operations Manager at Aylesbury Foodbank said:" The cost-of-living crisis has been devastating for so many people who were already struggling to cope.

"The rise in fuel costs has also impacted our clients hard making 2022-2023 our busiest year ever.”