notable dispatches
Our efforts were noted and shared with us all at Zink when we received the Queens Award for Voluntary Service (the MBE for charities) for everything we have done to date.
“A warm welcome with support to resolve problems and build a happy future. Plus a great café and weekly timetable of activities!”
In the early days of running the Food Bank we noticed that there were personal circumstances that repeated over and over again. We did some research with Sheffield University to investigate the reason why people were using the food bank. This showed that about 50% was to do with benefits. People were either not paid enough benefits or had issues like sanctions.
Some didn’t know how to claim or they weren’t on the right benefit. Financial incapability affected 30%, meaning people were unable to manage their money, perhaps because of learning disabilities, anxiety, or neurodivergence. Others simply didn’t have enough income to cover their usual bills, or had unforeseen circumstances.
We thought we probably can’t do anything about unforeseen circumstances, but we can do something about the other 80%. We reasoned that the base line for helping people to manage their money and reduce reliance on the food bank, was to help them in to work. We acquired four months funding for a work coach and decided to offer work experience within Zink. A one stop shop and a good model for employability. On the strength of that initial project Zink was awarded additional funding and the original 4-month work coach is still with us ten years later!
It became clear that not everyone using the food bank was ready for work due to a variety of reasons, and so we expanded our offering to encompass advice and introduction to the right support. As personal issues resolved, the route to work could be managed. With a regular, employed income, the likelihood of falling into poverty is reduced.
In 2017 Zink had funding to set up a ‘super kitchen’ alongside the foodbank. This became the community café. Not only does the café provide excellent and affordable food, it is a venue for community activities and over time has offered well-being groups, alternative therapies and haircuts.
COVID in 2020 provided many challenges. Zink continued with the food bank but the café had to close and all advice regards benefits and employment had to be conducted by telephone. The lack of social opportunities resulted in a marked increase in poor mental health and suicidal tendencies.
All this galvanised Zink to find funding from governmental sources to add to its own fundraising in order to purchase premises in early 2021 which became Zink HQ. Now Zink could extend all its existing services and establish a well-being programme of activity. We started with the School of Rock and now offer 24 different activity groups, from knitting and board games to hill walking and swimming, from piano club to IT lessons.
The café is open to the general public and offers excellent food four days a week. Prices reflect the financial circumstance of the customer with a two tier pricing structure, together with vouchers for food bank users and the homeless. The café also serves as a warm space during the winter months.
Zink is particularly proud of its microjobs offering. Even just four hours per week, jobs tailored within Zink to the skills and aspirations of or clients, provide both experience and a sense of self-worth , enabling those doing the micro jobs with a platform from which to make application for work in the wider work place environment. The support given by our work coaches in making applications and telephone calls encourages a resilience and ability to manage such communications for themselves in future.
Alongside this approach to employability, Zink has run a project specifically for those in recovery from substance misuse. Those undertaking the programme have commented that as a result of an addiction, they have no work experience to take forward as a credible employee. The microjobs are an invaluable opportunity in such circumstances. Zink is proud to be able to report a 75% success rate of microjob employees transferring to mainstream work within 6 months.
In 2024 our recovery project was able to expand with funding from Derbyshire Recovery Partnership and working with three lived experience recovery workers who had personally experienced recovery from addiction. As Zink’s reputation grew, we were considered the right organisation to help deliver other publicly and externally funded projects, establishing a group for neurodivergent people under the age of 25 with the NHS and weekend mental health crisis support with Derbyshire Mind.
We offer support to Ukrainians who find themselves living in this country, from translation services to socialising and integration and finding employment.
The variety of offerings and the adaptability of Zink over the last ten years have established a viable organisation capable of achieving its aims. Zink does not do things to people; it does not do things for people. Rather it provides the environment and facility and support for people to find their own solutions to issues they are addressing in their lives.
Zink’s latest venture is to assist with the impact that poor housing can have. Zink is now able to offer accommodation in eight different flats, 14 people are currently benefitting from this arrangement. All are being supported in different ways -some are learning to cook and clean, others are learning new work skills, families in temporary accommodation have been offered a permanent home.
If you would like to know more about Zink, about how we can help you and about how you can help us, we would love to hear from you. Please get in touch.
We never aimed to seek recognition, only just from those who would need our services. It is nice and also reflective that we are providing what the community needs.
Our efforts were noted and shared with us all at Zink when we received the Queens Award for Voluntary Service (the MBE for charities) for everything we have done to date.
Due to our endeavour’s being positive for our environment, we have achieved the Investors in the Environment Bronze Award. This bolsters our solid foundation adding much more to everything we do into the future
The Zink Project is celebrated as ‘unique’ in the, All Party Parliamentary Report, ‘Feeding Britain’ as one of the first foodbanks to introduce wraparound services.
Part of Zink’s foodbank fundingcomes from contracted deliveryof employment programmes. By supporting foodbank users into work, Zink not only helps people out of poverty but also generates funding to keep the foodbank open. We have been successful in delivering…
We’re pleased to share that Zink has been named a winner of the 2025 Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) Awards – also known as the Charity Oscars.
The ceremony in London on 17 November brought together 400 guests from across the charity and social justice sectors.
News Page & why not look at the work the CSJ do on the: Centre For Social Justice Website.
Service users are published anonymously to protect their privacy
So, I’m a single Mum. I’ve got four kids and we lived in a flat with no curtains at the windows. I’d never had a job, and I cried a lot of the time so my support worker said I would never work. But when I started to volunteer at the Zink Food Bank, I started seeing a work coach and after a few sessions she took me out to buy interview clothes. I couldn’t believe how smart they made me feel. Then my work coach helped me fill out an application form to be a care worker and I got an interview. And then I got the job! I’ve built up my hours, I’ve got curtains, and I’ve inspired my two oldest kids to get off benefits and into work. And my third child wants to go to college!
I had nowhere to live after my marriage ended. I was homeless and I slept in a barn. I was working as a driver, but I lost that job because I was drinking too much and so I had to use the food bank at Zink. It was about two years later that Zink helped me find accommodation and I thought I’d like to stop drinking alcohol. I researched addiction. That was me. I volunteered at the food bank to keep busy and started seeing a work coach. I started a microjob as foodbank storage manager at Zink. With that help and experience I got a part time maintenance job in a hotel. It went really well and now I work there full time which is sad because I have no time to volunteer at Zink. I used to see my doctor every week but now he says there is nothing wrong with me!
My relationship wasn’t good. It was abusive. It was violent. I had alcohol problems and mental health issues, and my children were taken away. I lived in a hostel and sometimes used the Food Bank at Zink. But I needed to be busy, so I wanted to volunteer and because I volunteered, I heard about the work coach. I thought I would be better in two years, but Zink got me a micro job which was good, so maybe eighteen months to get a job. But just a few weeks later I got a real job as a bank worker in the care industry which turned into full time. Zink helped me find a flat and supported my application to have my children with me. They moved back slowly and now we live as a family again.
I was having mental health issues caused by substance misuse. I owned my own business, I employed people, but I lost all that. I was in debt. I felt suicidal. After my second suicide attempt I was in hospital which led me to Zink for support. Zink helped me with the substance misuse and helped me find a flat to move into. They even helped equip that flat. I joined some social activities at Zink and they helped me find a job. I’m happy now. I’m sorting my life out.
Contd: Paul enjoys, offering his time to help out at cubs and setting up annual events such as Old Glossop Victorian Christmas Festivities.
He graduated in Business from Staffordshire University and went back to his studies later, achieving a first- class degree in Social Justice from Salford University and a Masters in Social Research and German at The University of Sheffield. Paul believes the benefit of a good education is to realise that we don’t know anything for certain; so rather than impose our view or standards on others, we can learn to accept and delight in who they are as individuals.
Spending many years in the civil service, Paul was a policy officer, where he worked with psychologists to develop different approaches to supporting unemployed people into work; a Disability Employment Advisor, where he worked directly with people to help them find jobs that they wanted and were capable of; and a Families Employment Officer at Tameside Council, where he worked with whole families affected by truancy, worklessness and offending.
Passionate about resolving unemployment issues, Paul realises we have to increase people’s confidence, which is why Zink has a place in today’s world. He says if we challenge people to push themselves a little bit further or achieve more than they thought they could, give people responsibility when nobody has expected anything of them before, encourage them to give back and help others, support each other and build positive friendships, develop skills that can be taken elsewhere, and allow people to start afresh without judging their past, confidence blossoms.
Contd:
everyone should have the opportunity to achieve their personal goals that supports and motivates them to do just that. Often people are led to believe that they must be one thing or another, Jane challenges this and encourages her clients to be what they want to be and what they are truly capable of.
Jane’s work back ground has been varied; she left home and moved into her own flat when she was 16 and has been working and standing on her own two feet ever since then. She has done lots of different jobs and believes that through hard work, planning and, perhaps a bit of help, anyone can get to where they want to be.
Jane had her daughter when she was 20 and after a few years in an abusive marriage she became a working single parent, washing up in a school kitchen. She worked her way through the ranks very quickly, gaining relevant qualifications so that within three years she was in charge of the staff in a brand new kitchen. Jane moved to Buxton in 1996 and started to work for a local accountant using administration skills she gained as kitchen manager and in a former role as union steward.
Whilst working, Jane studied accountancy qualifications and opened her own payroll business in 1998 which she still runs part time. Jane continues to develop herself, achieving work coaching, assessing and other qualifications relevant to her role at Zink.
Jane has always had a strong sense of fairness and relishes supporting others. She has helped many people in the High Peak by aiding them to identify their skills, attributes and goals, building confidence so that they have achieved more than they ever expected.
Contd:
pen friend/boyfriend out there. I was a nanny for about 2 yrs then decided to train as a Hotel and Catering Manager to degree level. Managing my first hotel by the age of 26.
I lived in Germany for 12 yrs and became a fluent German speaker. I had my first daughter at 22 in Germany and she still lives there so I travel lots to Germany . I am currently involved with the Buxton Bad Nauheim twinning.
I returned to the UK and had 2 more children then moved to Buxton in 1996. I used to manage The Devonshire Bakery in Buxton till 2010 when I gave up my job to look after my Mother in Law who was diagnosed with Alzheimers. For the next 4 yrs I gained much knowledge and did as much training as possible to make a difference in her life with the issues Alzheimer’s brings.
Alongside I ran my own catering business helping various companies within the food industry promote their products. Creating recipes, Food-styling and food videos along with attending food exhibitions.
When Covid 19 hit the food industry was hit and I had very little work so I looked for a local food-based organisation where I could volunteer, and I discovered the High Peak Food Bank. I started to volunteer and did more and more as the months flew by. I joined the team in April 2022 as Foodbank and Reception Coordinator and love working with such a great team of colleagues, trustees and volunteers.
Contd:
trained as a social worker and learning disability nurse in Portsmouth, on the South Coast in 2000. Since then, I have had various roles supporting people such as working; in a local school with young people as a learning mentor; working with victims of crime and community and residential services.
In my spare time I am a busy mum of two and love all things cats, cake and coffee.
I love working at Zink and getting involved in our busy schedule of activities and services we offer. It is also a real privilege to work alongside our wonderful team of volunteers that make Zink the great place it is!
Contd:
… Switzerland in 2008 then to England 10 years ago. Louise has experience working within Finance and Marketing however she wanted to pursue her dream of working with children with special needs. She has several years of experience working as a teaching assistant in a school specialising in supporting children with severe and complex needs.
She loves to support children and individuals and to see them thrive and promote their self- esteem. She is looking forward to providing support to neurodivergent children and young people aged 0 to 25 and their parents and carers and assist where needed.
When Louise moved to England with her family she fell in love with the hills and countryside in the High Peak.
She enjoys hiking, mountain biking and skiing.
Contd:
engaging and gaining people’s trust, she always has a big welcome for everyone, which helps put them at ease before clients start to work with her.
Michelle continues helping clients to overcome their barriers, learn new skills and empower them to take charge of their own work or education destiny. Working closely in a person-centred way provides great job satisfaction for Michelle, she gives her all and continues to help people with neuro diverse conditions to find their happy place.
Previously, Michelle has worked as a Manager running the Retail Centre for Royal Mail, she has two children and has been a full-time working Mum, overcoming many difficult personal challenges during this time has given her life skills she draws on to assist others.
She has a strong background in customer services and has excellent administration skills having worked for many years as the Home Administrator for private care homes. This brought her through covid ending her career and allowing her to look for a more rewarding role, joining the team at Zink originally in June 2021, she enjoys working with likeminded people and volunteers.
Contd:
juggles work coaching at Zink with her careers business, working in local schools and post-16 centres.
Being given the opportunity to support people in the way they need is one of the main reasons Gez loves to work at Zink. She has been successful in unlocking potential, helping people find their strengths, changing outlooks, overcoming barriers and securing relevant training and employment. Taking a personalised approach and having the freedom to be creative makes work coaching enjoyable as well as worthwhile.
Gez has two children and when she isn’t looking after them, she likes to spend time walking, swimming and running. She loves living in the hills of the High Peak.
In my spare time I am a busy mum of two and love all things cats, cake and coffee.
I love working at Zink and getting involved in our busy schedule of activities and services we offer. It is also a real privilege to work alongside our wonderful team of volunteers that make Zink the great place it is!