Every day we are so appreciative and celebrate the work of our volunteers at Genesis Trust and Bath, Keynsham & Somer Valley Foodbank. But each year starting on the first Monday in June the U.K. celebrates Volunteers’ Week, a campaign dedicated to the incredible contribution made by volunteers in our communities. Watch out for our social media posts on Facebook this week as we thank our volunteers and champion their accomplishments.  

Did you know we have 184 volunteers that support Bath, Keynsham and Somer Valley Foodbank? 

There are only three part-time staff members to cover the Foodbank’s wide geographical area. A large portion of the work is done by our volunteers.  

We want to thank all our warehouse volunteers and volunteer van crews based in the village of Haydon (near Radstock) and at the Brassmill Lane Trading Estate in Bath. They are responsible for collecting food donated by local individuals from the various donation points, sorting it at the warehouses and then redistributing the food to our foodbank centres.  

In the last year (April 2025-March 2026), our warehouse and van teams have collected, sorted and redistributed nearly 84,000 kg of food. That’s a similar weight of a fully loaded Boeing 757 passenger jet!  

We also want to thank all our volunteers that faithfully help in our nine Foodbank centres spread across Somer Valley, Keynsham, Saltford and Bath. I have visited all the centres and saw their compassionate support for families and individuals facing crisis. In the last year, our volunteers in the Foodbank centres have supported 5825 people, 2614 of which are children.  

Thanks too goes to our volunteer delivery drivers. The Foodbank provides a food delivery service to vulnerable people with health or mobility conditions, leaving them unable to come to a Foodbank distribution centre to collect. In the last year, our drivers delivered 150 food parcels to people in the Bath area. In total 247 people (including 58 children) were supported with a delivery from our volunteer team. 

We can’t forget our volunteer admin support and volunteer speakers, who are spreading the word in our local community about the important work Foodbank does. So many people play a vital role in making our crisis support possible.  

We currently have 24 active volunteers who support Genesis Life Projects or other areas of Genesis. 

They are such a tremendous blessing to us. They help with admin, cook food, make hot drinks, support activities, courses and connect with our clients. This is through our Life Connect meals or Lifeline day-centre and through our Life Skills activities. We are so grateful for those who collect donated fresh food from supermarkets, run activities like a knitting group and Boules. Their partnership in coming alongside our clients is so important in building trust and community at Genesis Life Projects. 

We want to give a big thanks to the volunteers from St John the Evangelist’s Church. They faithfully cook and serve amazing healthy, hot meals every Thursday for our Life Connect lunch. In the last year (April 2025-March 2026), they served 1998 meals over 49 sessions to 285 different homeless and vulnerable individuals. This contribution to Genesis Life Projects is integral in meeting new clients and signposting them to much needed support. 

 

We are very appreciative of our corporate volunteers. 

And we don’t want to forget to thank all our corporate volunteers that give of their time to support Genesis Trust. They have helped sort food in our Foodbank warehouses and food drives, helped at Genesis Furniture, donated essential items like food and toiletries, helped with our office/Gateway moves and participate in our challenge events. We had three corporate partners who did a Genesis Skydive in April, ten ran Bath Half in March and one is doing a Foodbank skydive later this month. Thank you to all the corporates that invest back into their community by supporting our work with homeless and vulnerable people. If you’d like to support us through your business, click here to find out more. 

Have you noticed just how valuable our volunteers are? We really can’t provide our services without them. Another way to say thank you is to invite all our volunteers to a coffee morning on 18 June, 10-12noon at our Gateway Centre. Please email office@genesistrust.org.uk to confirm you are coming. 

Again, we want to give a massive thank you to all our volunteers this Volunteers’ Week! You can find out more about volunteering with the Foodbank and Genesis Trust by clicking here.