AN appeal has been made for public help to avoid the closure of a food bank which helps struggling families across the southern Exmoor area.

A meeting is being called on Monday, November 4, for people find out how they can become involved in keeping Moorland Food Bank running.

They are being urged by the charity to attend a gathering from 10 am in the Riverside Youth Centre, Dulverton.

The food bank has supported hundreds of families since it was set up by Jenny Barker in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Now, the charity is in danger of closing, partly it will lose its premises on the Dulverton Junior School campus when it is handed back to Somerset Council next spring.

But also because Ms Barker is stepping down at the end of December and nobody has yet stepped forward to take on her role.

The food bank also needs to become a standalone organisation rather than a loose branch of the West Somerset Food Cupboard (WSFC) to make it easier to apply for funding.

It has taken on former WSFC co-ordinator Ali Sanderson as a project officer to try to find solutions to the issues.

Ms Barker, who co-ordinates and fund-raises for the charity alongside eight volunteers, said: “The need has not gone away, we still need to maintain some form of food bank in the local area.

“But the portable building we are in is not fit for purpose because it has not been maintained and there are no facilities for the volunteers, I am stepping down, and to be successful for grant funding which we rely on, we need to be a standalone organisation.

“So, what we are looking for on November 4 is to drum up enough support from the local community in order to create a new organisation but still call it Moorland Food Bank which will eventually become a charity in its own right.

“We need a group of people who are enthusiastic to take the food bank forward for the next five years, to become trustees, to bring any interest or skills they can to help.”

Ms Barker said between August and September this year volunteers had delivered 300 food parcels helping 650 people across an area covering Dulverton, Brushford, Bridgetown, Brompton Regis, Wheddon Cross, Winsford, Withypool, Exford, and other communities.

Earlier this month Ms Barker received a Somerset Council chairman’s award for her community service with the food bank which made ‘a huge difference to people’s lives and prevents them from slipping into greater poverty’.

Referrals to the food bank are made mostly through West Somerset’s village agent Nikki Bonner, who can be reached on 07940 913698.

It was originally was intended to operate until the coronavirus pandemic ended, but the demand has continued ever since.

Other organisations currently providing food resilience support for families in West Somerset include food banks in Wiveliscombe and the Quantock Hills, a food cupboard and local pantry in Alcombe, Minehead, and a local pantry in Wiveliscombe.