Our CEO, Steve Clay, shares his reflections on the past 12 months
Progress is happening — including the removal of the two-child benefit cap, which will lift more than 470,000 children out of poverty. This is a huge step, and we’re so grateful to everyone who campaigned with us. Together, we really can make poverty history.
Christmas is a time when Christians across the world celebrate the birth of our saviour, Jesus Christ — a season of love, hope and goodwill, values that I know you live out every day.
It’s now three years since I joined Cambridge City Foodbank as CEO, and I can honestly say I feel so privileged working alongside you, our incredible volunteers, as we continue to tackle poverty together. Despite huge levels of support, we began 2025 in a particularly tough place, with the need for foodbanks services at the highest ever level. It was clear we couldn’t wait for government policy to catch up, and that changes were needed to make sure we could keep supporting people on the lowest incomes.
One of the biggest changes was to how people access our Foodbank Welcome Centres. From April, we spoke with referral partners, Team Leaders and people with lived experience of needing our service. We learned that around half of those receiving emergency food weren’t receiving support elsewhere in the city. We needed a better way to connect them with the right support — through partner agencies and, where appropriate, our Fairbite Food Clubs — so that emergency food continues to be available for people facing crisis.
Changes to our referral system now encourage seeking wider support through signposting and pre-voucher agency support. We’ve also expanded the Fairbite Food Club network, our social supermarket service offering genuinely affordable food for people who need ongoing support in the medium term. In November, we were delighted to open our sixth location, at St Paul’s in the City Centre.
Alongside this, from the start of the year we knew that we would need to move from our long-standing home at Orwell House. Thanks to your support, and the help of the Council and Trussell, we completed the move in August without a single break in service. It was a powerful reminder of what our community can achieve together. The move also allowed us to bring our warehouses and offices together into one site, creating a stronger, more efficient base for the future.
Beyond our services, we’ve spent much of the year campaigning for change at both local and national level. In June, supporters travelled to Westminster to join other food banks in the Trussell network, in calling on MPs to support an Essentials Guarantee, so that social security covers the very basic cost of living. With the Government committing to end poverty, we knew it was time to speak up. Progress is happening — including the removal of the two-child benefit cap, which will lift more than 470,000 children out of poverty. This is a huge step, and we’re so grateful to everyone who campaigned with us. Together, we really can make poverty history.
We’re already starting to see the positive impact of the changes we’ve made. Looking ahead to 2026, emergency food use through our Foodbank Welcome Centres is expected to fall — not because fewer meals are needed, but because more people will be assisted through better-suited support services across our network, and through Fairbite Food Clubs.
2025 has been a year of change, and at every step your support has made an enormous difference. Beyond the practical help you give, it’s the warmth, joy and sense of community you bring to people facing difficult times that truly stands out. We simply couldn’t do this work without you.
So thank you, for all you have given in energy, time and money throughout 2025. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and I look forward to continuing our work together next year as we strive to stop hunger in Cambridgeshire and one day, to end the need for food banks altogether.