I’m keen to build support for Cambridge City Foodbank in the community; our aims of ending the need for food banks in Cambridge can only be achieved with wider support; whether this is volunteer time, raising awareness or accessing funding.
As part of each of your regular newsletters, we include a short profile piece on a member of our community whose work makes a big difference to us as an organisation. This month, we spoke to Amaya Dellar-Moy, our Development Officer, who develops relationships with our key supporters and delivers our fundraising appeals.
Read on to find more about Amaya, her role at the Foodbank, our upcoming Winter Appeal, and what Amaya likes to do what she’s not at the Foodbank!
Can you tell us a bit about your background prior to joining the Foodbank?
I’m originally from Cambridge, but grew up near Kettering. For university, I moved to Manchester to study French and Arabic. I volunteered at a language school to help refugees with learning English, and completed a CELTA course to teach English as a foreign language. After university, my husband and I moved back to Cambridge to be closer to family, and I completed my master’s online at SOAS. Once I finished studying, I knew that I wanted to work in the charity sector. I saw a role advertised for a Development Administrator at the Foodbank and applied straight away- I’ve been here now for just over a year!
What is your role and responsibilities at the Foodbank?
I’m the Development Officer in the Development Team. We work to ensure that the Foodbank has the resources to continue to provide emergency food for people on the lowest incomes and can continue to move towards ending the need for food banks in Cambridge. A key part of what we do is our fundraising appeals and events, and strengthening relationships with supporters in the city, including corporations, churches, schools and community groups. We ensure that our donors are informed of what the Foodbank does and how they can help us achieve our aims. One of the campaigns on the horizon is our Winter Appeal in which we aim to raise awareness, collect Christmas Hampers, and raise donations through our match funding campaign.
How does the development team’s work help the Foodbank achieve its aims?
The services that our Welcome Centres and Fairbite Food Clubs provide need resources and funding, so we work to ensure these resources are available and maximise support throughout the city.
We’ve created a number of information packs, which include details on how corporations can volunteer for us, how to set up a food collection point and ideas for individuals to fundraise for us. We’ve found that giving people who are interested in supporting us a choice of opportunities has been great for building engagement.
Throughout this work I’m keen to build support for Cambridge City Foodbank in the community; our aims of ending the need for food banks in Cambridge can only be achieved with wider support; whether this is volunteer time, raising awareness or accessing funding.
Can you tell us about this year’s Winter Appeal?
For this year’s Winter Appeal, we’re raising both funds and food! We’ll have two main calls to action-donate a hamper, or donate to our match funding campaign! This decision was made following the success of the Big Give match funding campaign. This raised almost £20,000; this has contributed to core costs at the foodbank, such as food and essential items for the people we support, and our van costs for delivering and picking up food. We’ll be sending more details about the Winter Appeal soon!
Are there any opportunities for volunteers to get involved in fundraising?
Yes! For our Winter Appeal, we’ll need lots of support with sharing messages and raising awareness to increase donations- there’ll be some resources on our website for this.
If you’re interested in completing a fundraising activity for us, get in touch with us at supporters@ccfb.org.uk! We have a fundraising pack with lots of ideas we can send you. If you’re part of a church or any community groups, it can be really impactful to share your fundraising efforts with your networks. We love to hear of volunteers who are fundraising for us; we receive so much great support from our volunteers.
What do you enjoy doing when you’re not working at the Foodbank?
My work at the Foodbank is four days a week, so I spent one day a week volunteering as a Debt Advisor at my local church in St. Ives. For the last four months, I’ve been training for my first half marathon- I completed it last week, and I’m thinking about maybe booking onto another one for next year… I see my family a lot, spend time with my husband, and I really like charity shopping and reading too!