President Ann Cottier welcomed members to the April meeting of Ballabeg WI.

A special welcome was expressed to our new island chairman Pat Nutter, who came along to present the Jurby Ambassadors Cup, to long serving member and our treasurer Mary Cringle.

The cup is presented each year to an island WI member, who has played a very important part in WI life and also in wider aspects of island life.

Mary’s CV is very impressive. This year the nominations were judged by MHK Julie Edge .

We are all so very proud of Mary, as Pat said she is a very worthy winner.

Ballabeg has also received the Federation Gold Award for services to the local community, island and worldwide projects.

These include craft boxes for women in Rumania and an ACWW project to provide toilets in remote communities in Africa.

The meeting progressed with attention to the usual business.

Members were thanked for making the annual concert in March a big success. A letter of thanks with a donation has been received from Arbory Commissioners, for our help with March’s civic service.

Jenny Cain is to be our delegate to the national AGM in Cardiff in June and Annette Berry and Mavis Pullein will celebrate their birthdays this month.

Also, Margaret Tasker was thrilled to be this year’s recipient of the Margaret Kerruish Federation bursary of £300, to attend a course at Denman College. She is very much looking forward to her first visit.

Our speaker this evening was Jane Foxon, co-director of the Isle of Man Food Bank.

Jane gave us all a very interesting talk on the workings and necessity of the food bank. It was started on the 1st of December 2013, following research carried out by the Isle of Man Rotary Club, who were the prime movers in getting it started.

Because we are a widespread rural community, a different approach was needed to the food banks in the UK.

The motto ’real food for real people in real need’ and ’We can give a hand up not a hand out’ says it all.

Crisis can occur suddenly such as illness, redundancy or domestic situations, leaving little money for food and essentials, so this is where food parcels are such a big help. Recipients usually only need help in the short term, four to six weeks, to help them get back on their feet.

The requests for help have risen from 125 in 2014 to 903 in 2017. This was a big surprise to us all, making us realise what an important charity it is, run entirely by volunteers.

Support from local businesses and supermarkets is invaluable in supplying surplus fruit, veg and frozen food.

The charity also now have freezers which are a very big help. Jane said they also have an allotment at The Braid where horticultural students from the college give practical help.

Donations from the public are very important. We learned that our nearest collection point is at Arbory school and the southern distribution centre is at the Port Erin Methodist church hall.

As well as food, cash donations are also very welcome to help offset running costs.

Members brought along a wonderful assortment of donations to the meeting, the table was groaning!

Thanks were expressed to Jane for giving such a very interesting and informative talk. We were all quite surprised by just how much the Foodbank is needed on the island, and very impressed by the organisation.

The meeting concluded with lots of chat and of course a welcome cuppa.

Gill Thompson

Ballabeg WI