Alston Moor Foodbank has rebuilt its website, and that question is what most of it is about.
There are 37 recipes on there now, with a lot more being added over the coming weeks. They aren't restaurant food. They're the sort of thing you'd actually cook on a Tuesday — cheap, quick, made from what the shops here sell. You can filter them down to meat, fish, veggie or vegan, and there's a button that shows you only the gluten-free ones, with the swap spelt out where a recipe needs one.
And there's Beryl. She's the cook who turns up all over the site, and she runs something called Build a Meal. You type in what's actually in your cupboard — half a cabbage, a tin of beans, that bit of cheese — and she comes back with something you could make from it. She's not always right, and she'd be the first to tell you so, but she's a good deal better than staring into the fridge.
There's a pile of kitchen tips too, the sort of thing people round here know and assume everybody else knows: how to make things last, how to use the whole of something, how to keep the bills down. And a **store cupboard** page on what's worth having in so you're never completely stuck.
Newest is a page called Keeping food safe. Most of it you'll know already, but a few things catch everybody out — what "best before" actually means as against "use by", how long a freezer holds out in a power cut, and why yesterday's rice has rules of its own. It follows Food Standards Agency and NHS advice, and there's **a printable one-page card** you can stick inside a cupboard door.
None of this needs a login, an app, or an account. It's just there.
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And if things are tight
The other half of the website is the Foodbank itself, and it's worth saying plainly how it works, because a lot of people don't know.
**You ring 01434 647247.**
That's it. No referral from a doctor, a school or anybody else. No forms. No proving anything.
One of the trustees rings you back — a friendly chat, not an interview — and asks what you need and where you'd like the parcel brought. Your shopping is then bought locally, at the Spar, the Co-op and Wholefoods, and made up for your household rather than handed out as a standard box. Tell us about children, allergies, a diet, or that you've only got a kettle and a microwave, and we'll shop around it.
It usually arrives the same day or the next, anywhere on Alston Moor, at a time that suits you. Nothing to sign, nothing to pay.
And it's discreet. The delivery doesn't have to come to your house at all — a friend's, a relative's, your car, a quiet spot on your way home from work. Wherever feels easiest.
You can ask again, too. Nobody keeps a tally.
Being short of food is often a sign of something else — a bill that can't be paid, a benefit that's stopped, work that's dried up.
The **Support** and **Resources** pages point to people who help with that: debt and benefits advice, help with heating, local charities. If you're managing now but worried about the winter, don't wait. The earlier you ask, the more can be done.
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One last thing
The Foodbank is run entirely by trustees and volunteers. Nobody is paid. It has kept going week in, week out, for years, and every penny spent on food is spent in Alston.
The website has a **Send us a recipe or tip** page, and it means it. If you've got a cheap meal your family actually eats, or a trick for making something stretch, send it in and it'll go on for everybody else.
**alstonmoorfoodbank.org.uk**