Carmarthen Community Money Advice

Drop in sessions every Thursday - excluding the last Thursday of the month - at Bethel Church, Hill House, Picton Terrace, Carmarthen SA31 3BT Carmarthen Community Money Advice and Carmarthen Foodbank are run under the same management. Below is our donations statement regarding any donation made to either projects.

“The key strategic priority for Trussell Trust Foodbanks across the UK over the ne

xt five years is to do away with the need for foodbanks. To achieve this goal, people need additional support to help manage their finances and address levels of personal debt. As we in Carmarthen work towards achieving this goal, the Xcel Project has launched Carmarthen Community Money Advice Centre to work alongside our Foodbank as two parts of the same provision under a single management structure. Through the Xcel projects, Towy Community Church seeks to provide an holistic service to those most at need in our community and provide wraparound support for people who come into our foodbank. We intend to provide in-depth casework support to those struggling with unmanageable debt (many of these referrals will come through our foodbank, or those accessing support being referred into our foodbank). We will support them to resolve their debt situation and to seek financial resilience. This provision enhances the existing work of the foodbank, and helps provide people with a pathway out of poverty, whilst continuing to provide food parcels when people do need that emergency support. We see our wider advice work as a vital part of the foodbank provision, and this area of our work is in most need of funding. The donation of food and essential personal items remains of great importance and we greatly value those Supermarket retailers who partner with us in donation collection. However a broader, large scale provision brings with it greater overhead costs, including administration, offices, communication, transport, warehousing, waste disposal and volunteer training to name just some, as well as the need to purchase further food stocks when certain items are in short supply. We are very grateful to those that have donated money to the work of the Foodbank in the past - such donations have been invaluable in allowing us to support those in need. As we look to the future, any donations received will be targeted at our provision as a whole, unless the donor specifies that it is being exclusively given for providing food, or exclusively for providing debt advice.”