• Contact
  • About
DONATE
NEWSLETTER SIGN UP
  • Login
East Anglia Bylines
  • HOME
  • News
    • Brexit
    • Health
    • Education
    • World
  • Politics
    • Local government
    • Justice
    • Activism
  • Politics Blog
  • Climate
    • Environment
  • Lifestyle
    • Community
    • Culture
    • History
    • Humour
    • Property
  • Business
    • Economics
    • Finance
    • Transport
    • Farming
  • ANGLIA
    • East Anglia
    • Bedfordshire
    • Cambridgeshire
    • Essex
    • Hertfordshire
    • Norfolk
    • Suffolk
  • Series
No Result
View All Result
  • HOME
  • News
    • Brexit
    • Health
    • Education
    • World
  • Politics
    • Local government
    • Justice
    • Activism
  • Politics Blog
  • Climate
    • Environment
  • Lifestyle
    • Community
    • Culture
    • History
    • Humour
    • Property
  • Business
    • Economics
    • Finance
    • Transport
    • Farming
  • ANGLIA
    • East Anglia
    • Bedfordshire
    • Cambridgeshire
    • Essex
    • Hertfordshire
    • Norfolk
    • Suffolk
  • Series
No Result
View All Result
East Anglia Bylines

Essex food bank CEO wins Institute of Directors award

The Chief Officer of Colchester food bank has won the Institute of Directors' Chair's Award: regional Director of the Year.

Jenny RhodesbyJenny Rhodes
March 24, 2022
in Anglia, Essex, Welfare
Reading Time: 3 mins
A A
Colchester foodbank

Colchester foodbank. Photo © Colchester foodbank

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

The Director of Colchester Food Bank received the prestigious ‘Chair’s Award’ in the Institute of Directors annual regional award ceremony held last week. Mike Beckett, who is also a councillor on Brightlingsea Town Council in Essex, was recognised for his work since 2017 at the busiest food bank in Essex, which aims to stop hunger in the Colchester area. He has also been made a Fellow of the Institute of Directors.

In his five years at the Food Bank, the number of volunteers has risen from 45 to 250, and the number of centres has increased from two to ten all around the Colchester area. The service continued helping those in need throughout the pandemic and provided meals for over 15,000 people in 2021.

Food banks on the rise

Food banks have increased in the UK, now numbering over 2,200. The Trussell Trust supplied nearly 100,000 emergency food parcels in the East of England between April and September 2021. The Food Foundation found that almost ten percent of East Anglian residents report food insecurity. Food banks are now a feature of life in the UK and many rely on them. During the pandemic, many new people became users due to losing their jobs or hours, or anxiety about shopping in large supermarkets. Usage is likely to continue to rise with the ‘cost of living squeeze’: high inflation and soaring fuel and energy prices.

The award is meaningful because it values Mike’s hard work, and recognises that food bank users and volunteers are important. He hopes the award helps food banks gain credibility in the business world, encouraging companies to trust them with their generosity. Mike is to be congratulated for his dedication in helping those in need, and his continuing belief that tackling poverty matters.

If you need help with using a food bank, the Citizen’s Advice Bureau is a good place to start.

Mike Beckett IoD award
Mike Beckett (centre) with IoD regional chair Biplab Rakshi and author Alison Edgar MBE.

More on food banks from East Anglia Bylines

Food hub: St Andrew's church, Cherry Hinton. Photo Aidan Baker
Anglia

How food-poor are we?

byAidan Baker
October 27, 2021
Tags: PovertyWelfare
Previous Post

Covid patients are still not seeking medical care early enough

Next Post

Rail pension shell company won’t pay for fire cladding, so my flat is worthless

Jenny Rhodes

Jenny Rhodes

Jenny Rhodes lives in Essex and taught in London for many years, specialising in Literacy and English as an Additional Language. As well as education, she has a particular interest in gender equality and environmental issues. Jenny is a member of the EAB editorial team.

Related Posts

Funeral for Arnt Olsen in Norway, 1932. The funeral guests are all gathered around the coffin, children at the front, all very soberly dressed, There are flower wreaths on the coffin.
Featured

Funerals are optional, dying is not

byRobert Ashton
December 9, 2023
A statue on a tomb of a woman leaning on the tomb, weeping.
Featured

Grief Awareness Week: resources for support and healing

byEast Anglia Bylinesand1 others
December 7, 2023
View of a series of pylons marching across a valley in England
Anglia

Hope sparks for end of pylon controversy

byEast Anglia Bylines
December 7, 2023
Care home residents painting
Community

East Anglia’s adult social care crisis one year on

byJ.J. Jackson
December 2, 2023
Demonstration in front of the Home Office by the organisation Global Justice Now in 2018 against the hostile environment. A group of people are holding a long banner that says 'End the hostile environment'.
Activism

Migrants organise to beat ‘hostile environment’

byMariam Yusuf
November 28, 2023
Next Post
Ipswich Cladiator activist Alex Dickin

Rail pension shell company won't pay for fire cladding, so my flat is worthless

PLEASE SUPPORT OUR CROWDFUNDER

Subscribe to our newsletters
CHOOSE YOUR NEWS
Follow us on social media
CHOOSE YOUR PLATFORMS
Download our app
ALL OF BYLINES IN ONE PLACE
Subscribe to our gazette
CONTRIBUTE TO OUR SUSTAINABILITY
Make a monthly or one-off donation
DONATE NOW
Help us with our hosting costs
SIGN UP TO SITEGROUND
We are always looking for citizen journalists
WRITE FOR US
Volunteer as an editor, in a technical role, or on social media
VOLUNTEER FOR US
Something else?
GET IN TOUCH
Previous slide
Next slide

LATEST

Library closed sign

Tory councillors lose the faith, as local councils collapse

December 11, 2023
Deer in rewilded woods

Our favourite stories: Rewilding: leaving nature alone

December 10, 2023
University of Essex students’ sitting on some steps with a banner saying "Human Rights Week". This is the annual ‘chalking of the steps’ event where they write the articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in numerous languages, on the concrete steps of the University’s Colchester Campus.

Do you know your human rights?

December 10, 2023
Funeral for Arnt Olsen in Norway, 1932. The funeral guests are all gathered around the coffin, children at the front, all very soberly dressed, There are flower wreaths on the coffin.

Funerals are optional, dying is not

December 9, 2023
Liberal Democrats celebrating

A good week for the Liberals: the blue wall swing continues

December 9, 2023
Sunak at yet another 'Stop the Boats' press conference

Pecksniff: Is this the end for Sunak?

December 9, 2023

MOST READ

Two people approach passport control at the UK Border Control, Heathrow.

Who’s afraid of freedom of movement?

December 8, 2023
Sunak at yet another 'Stop the Boats' press conference

Pecksniff: Is this the end for Sunak?

December 9, 2023
Climate crisis. Houses on the cliff edge at Hemsby

“Sorry, you are on your own!” climate crisis hits Norfolk

December 3, 2023
People demonstrating against poverty. One banner says "Fight poverty, not the poor."

We can eliminate poverty: but we have decided not to

December 7, 2023

Tags

Activism Anglian Water Brexit Business Cartoons Climate Community Conservatives COP26 Crime Democracy Economics Economy Elections Environment EU Farming Government Health History International Women's Day Labour Law Letters Local elections 2023 Local government National Grid Net zero NHS Norwich Opinion Our place in Europe Pandemic Party politics Pecksniff Politics Poverty Sewage Social care Trade Ukraine VAWG Welfare Wildlife Women
East Anglia Bylines

We are a not-for-profit citizen journalism publication. Our aim is to publish well-written, fact-based articles and opinion pieces on subjects that are of interest to people in East Anglia and beyond.

East Anglia Bylines is a trading brand of Bylines Network Limited, which is a partner organisation to Byline Times.

Learn more about us

No Result
View All Result
  • About
  • Authors
  • Complaints
  • Contact
  • Donate
  • Letters
  • Privacy
  • Network Map
  • Network RSS Feeds
  • Submission Guidelines

© 2023 East Anglia Bylines. Powerful Citizen Journalism

No Result
View All Result
  • HOME
  • News
    • Brexit
    • Health
    • Education
    • World
  • Politics
    • Local government
    • Justice
    • Activism
  • Politics Blog
  • Climate
    • Environment
  • Lifestyle
    • Community
    • Culture
    • History
    • Humour
    • Property
  • Business
    • Economics
    • Finance
    • Transport
    • Farming
  • ANGLIA
    • East Anglia
    • Bedfordshire
    • Cambridgeshire
    • Essex
    • Hertfordshire
    • Norfolk
    • Suffolk
  • Series

Newsletter sign up

DONATE

© 2023 East Anglia Bylines. Powerful Citizen Journalism

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In