IFAN's History
The Independent Food Aid Network (IFAN) was first developed by Seb Mayfield in collaboration with Steph Ellis, Professor Jon May and Chris Sunderland in 2016. The idea for a network of grassroots food aid providers outside of the established Trussell Trust network emerged following Seb's visit to Canada where food banks had already existed for decades. Seb saw the potential for an alternative approach to food poverty as practised in Canada through Community Food Centres as described in his Winston Churchill Memorial Trust report. We are grateful to Seb, Steph, Jon and Chris for all their work to get IFAN off the ground.
We are grateful to Chris Sunderland for his contribution in time and wisdom as founder and trustee from 2016-19, Steph Ellis for her contribution as founder, volunteer and charity secretary from 2016-19, and Robin Burgess who was trustee then treasurer from 2018-19.
Many thanks, too, to Annie Connolly and Megan Waugh for their invaluable work during the Spring of 2020 at the start of the pandemic. We are also thankful for the invaluable support of volunteers Ren Piercy, Lucy Cullen, Sharon Ball and Dr David Beck during 2018, Katie Gordon during 2019 -20 and Laura Gent in 2021.
History
The idea for the Independent Food Aid Network (IFAN) was developed by Seb Mayfield in collaboration with Steph Ellis, Jon May and Chris Sunderland following Seb's visit to Canada where food banks have existed for decades. Seb saw the potential for an alternative approach to food poverty as practised in Canada through Community Food Centres. He published a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust report on the subject and we are grateful to him for his hard work alongside Steph, Jon and Chris in getting IFAN off the ground.
We are grateful to Chris Sunderland for his contribution in time and wisdom as founder and trustee from 2016-19, Steph Ellis for her contribution as founder, volunteer and charity secretary from 2016-19, and Robin Burgess who was trustee then treasurer from 2018-19. Many thanks, too, to Annie Connolly and Megan Waugh for their invaluable work during the Spring of 2020 at the start of the pandemic. And to Ashleigh Haney who was has worked with IFAN during various periods from 2019-22 first as a volunteer then as Membership and Finance Officer then as Project Officer.
We are also thankful for the invaluable support of volunteers Ren Piercy, Lucy Cullen, Sharon Ball and Dr David Beck during 2018, Katie Gordon during 2019 -20 and Laura Gent in 2021.