Inside the hidden Oldham food banks run by schools

According to data collected exclusively by The Oldham Times, at least 10 Oldham schools run their own formal food banks – with many more providing other food support for students, including food parcels.

This means more than 12 per cent of the 81 primary and secondary schools which responded to the paper run their own food bank, with many opening their food banks after 2020, due to pressures caused by the Covid pandemic and lockdown restrictions.

The food banks are often funded, at least in part, by staff and parent donations.

Despite Covid restrictions being abolished, school food banks show no signs of going away, with another four opening since September 2022, amid the cost-of-living crisis.

Primary school Oasis Academy Clarksfield, which opened its food bank in September 2021, allows all members of the community to use its food bank.

However, most are tailored to allow parents, carers, and family members of pupils at the school to use the food bank.

Disadvantaged pupils most affected

Of the nine primary schools which told us they ran their own food bank, an average of 34.1 per cent of pupils would be considered ‘disadvantaged pupils’ by Ofsted – meaning they are eligible for the pupil premium as they have claimed free school meals within the last six years, are in care, or have left care, such as through adoption.

This is compared to an average of 29.3 per cent of pupils receiving the premium among 58 primary schools which said they did not run a food bank.

Across England, 25.5 per cent of pupils are eligible for the pupil premium, according to Government data.

A post-pandemic phenomenon

Schools have not always operated food banks.

In fact, just one of the 10 Oldham school food banks existed prior to March 2020 – when Covid-19 started to have a larger impact on the country and lockdown restrictions were first implemented.

Finding out which schools even have their own food banks is harder than you would think.

Reports made by school regular Ofsted are supposed to provide information to local authorities, funding bodies, and parents.

However, when asked by The Oldham Times, the body confirmed that it does not collect data on which schools operate their own food banks.

Oldham Council also confirmed that it did not have a list of food banks located within the borough’s schools.

The first school food bank set up in the borough appears to be in Corpus Christi RC Primary School.

The school set up its food bank, open to parents and carers, in September 2019.

It sees 28.3 per cent of its pupils eligible for the pupil premium, and recently had its ‘outstanding’ Ofsted rating re-affirmed by Ofsted, though the six-page report neglected to mention that it also operates as a food bank.

St Herbert’s School

St Herbert’s Roman Catholic School, located in Chadderton, is one of nine primary schools in the borough which runs its own formal food bank.

Ninety of the school’s 337 pupils (26.7 per cent) are in receipt of the pupil premium, putting the school just above the national average.

The food bank currently operates out of a cupboard in the school’s office, but, according to headteacher Susan Milligan it will soon be getting a larger space with a new extension currently under construction.

St Herbert's primary school (Image: Jack Fifield, Newsquest)

The food bank was first opened to pupils in March 2020, though the school had been collecting items for a ‘food bank Friday’ since 2016, where parents brought in dry food and gifts, which were given to community food banks.

The school tries to identify pupils who may benefit from the food bank, as many parents have too much pride to ask for help.

Unlike regular general food banks, St Herbert’s does not place limits on the number of times a family can visit.

Ms Milligan said: “What we found in the pandemic, in the first few weeks really, was many of our families found themselves in situations they’d never experienced before.

"With the pandemic came redundancies.

“People who were OK suddenly found themselves in the situation of not being OK quite quickly during that first lockdown.

“So the food bank actually became our food bank, rather than us giving the food elsewhere.

"As time has gone on since the pandemic other needs have arisen. We started with the food, but then we were giving computers away so children could access online learning.

"We were asking for donations from families.”

Headteacher Susan Milligan has worked at St Herbert's for nearly 10 years (Image: Jack Fifield, Newsquest)

As well as food, St Herbert’s has also provided families with other essentials.

Ms Milligan continued: “We hit the energy crisis, so it just seems to have been crisis after crisis after crisis really, over the last few years.

“We were then asking the families would they provide duvets, blankets, fleeces, anything that people could use to wrap themselves up to keep them warm.

“We’ve gone from just food to fleeces, toiletries, we have had families who have needed other things, for example a pram or a cot.”

Situation ‘dramatically worse’

Ms Milligan has worked at the school for nine and a half years. She believes the situation has got worse since she started, with the number of families needing support ‘at least doubling’ since before the pandemic.

“It’s dramatically got worse,” she said, “there was always a need for the wider community, but when the pandemic hit that need became close to home, in the sense it was the families here who need support.

“The families beforehand who were vulnerable were not as vulnerable as they are now. Their vulnerability has become worse as well.

"Before they might have been struggling to give breakfast, now it’s ‘we’ve got no food in the cupboards’."

She added: “The gap has got much wider. You’ve got families who were quite affluent before, and suddenly the main breadwinner has lost their job and they can’t afford to pay their mortgage, and then with the cost-of-living crisis as well that’s all just exacerbated.”

As well as donations from the parents and parishioners at the linked church, staff at the school also use their own money to help provide for the food bank.

“We use that money to buy fresh food, so milk, bread,” Ms Milligan explained.

A new extension is being built at St Herbert's, which will provide more room for the food bank (Image: Jack Fifield, Newsquest)

Janet Collins, a member of the school’s support team, runs the food bank. She’s worked at the school for around 22 years.

As part of her role, she helps vulnerable pupils. Now, she also acts as a food delivery person and purchaser. Ms Collins started noticing people needing food from around 2015.

She said: “We’ve always done uniform and things like that, I was always the TA with the spare uniform box.”

‘We look good on the surface’

She spoke of the challenges that come with her role, saying: “You need to work in a school for quite a long time to establish yourself, knowing the families that have a need.

"The mum and dad that have split up, the child with the scruffy school shoes that are flapping at the front that the caretaker can glue, that kind of thing.

“I know quite a lot of the families quite well now.”

She continued: “The staff are very good at alerting me to a family, and then I’ll dig a little bit to see.

"You’ve got to be able to approach people in a diplomatic way to make sure they’re not offended by you offering them food.

"We will have a few families that will ask directly, but not very many. But they’re always more than grateful.

“We look good on the surface, don’t we. Uniforms on we all look the same.

“We have kids here who will go to Lapland at Christmas and then we’ll have kids who we take to the baths in Year 3 just up the road in Chadderton, and they’ve never been to a swimming pool before.”

Clothes are on offer too (Image: Jack Fifield, Newsquest)

Ms Millingan added: “A lot has changed over the 10 years I’ve worked here, and a lot of that isn’t just our area, that is nationally, as well. It’s not just an area thing.

“We are just responding to that need as it arises, and we will continue to do that, as there will be other things in the future that we can’t foresee.”

Food support widespread in borough schools

Even though most of the borough’s schools do not operate their own food banks, that doesn’t mean they don’t help out students in other ways.

St Agnes CE Primary School, where more than two-fifths of pupils are eligible for free school meals, said its own staff fund breakfast for 10 families, weekly food parcels for six families, and buy the lunches for four of its children – but it would not consider this to constitute a food bank.

Woodlands Primary Academy, where nearly half of students (48.3 per cent) were eligible for free school meals, also said it provides ‘occasional care packages’ for families, including cereal, bread, tinned foods, nappies, and feminine hygiene products.

The school clarified that this support is "infrequent and short-term for those in sudden need to tide them over until they can visit a food bank".

Mather Street Primary School also ‘informally provides’ breakfast for some pupils, despite more than half of pupils (53.1 per cent) being eligible for free school meals.

Secondary school The Hathershaw College, which has 43.6 per cent of pupils eligible for the premium, provides free breakfast in school for all pupils, and free toast at break time for all students, regardless of free school meal status.

Secondary school Oasis Academy Oldham, where half of pupils are eligible for the premium, delivers hot meals and food hampers during holidays and some evenings, with 30 families given food deliveries from September to April.

Food aid network

Sabine Goodwin is the coordinator of the Independent Food Aid Network, a registered charity which is calling for a cash-first approach to food insecurity to address the root causes of poverty driving food bank use.

The charity has identified at least 1,172 independent food banks operating across the UK, in addition to more than 1,300 run by the Trussell Trust and hundreds run by schools, universities, hospitals, and the Salvation Army.

Ms Goodwin said: “If you look at DWP Family Resources Survey, of the households who reported severe food insecurity across the UK, 14 per cent of the households which reduced the amount of food they ate because of lack of income used a food bank, so 86 per cent reported that level of food insecurity and weren’t accessing a food bank.

“It’s really, really important to focus on that issue.”

Tackling the stigma to accessing help

She continued: “There’s no data properly collected from a lot of the schools you’re hearing from.

"Even if you had all that data you’d only ever be talking about the tip of the iceberg when it comes to severe food insecurity.

“We know that people are ashamed, there’s a stigma around using food banks, and people are always going to want to try to fend for themselves.

"This is all about lack of income, so the answer is for people to be able to access enough income through wages or social security to be able to buy food for themselves.

“It’s human nature, you don’t want to be relying on charity. We know that food bank parcels don’t do anything to address or reduce poverty, they just alleviate it temporarily, and we know that because food insecurity levels are just going up, and up, and up.

“The way we see it is a food parcel is like a sticking plaster that just lasts a short amount of time, but income addresses the problem and reduces food insecurity.”

She added: “It’s hidden food banks, sure, but it’s hidden food insecurity. Who’s impacted? People who would never dream of going, particularly elderly people, people who just do not want to be relying on charity and would rather suffer in silence, would rather ask for help from friends and family until that help runs out.”