Prepared for Independent Food Aid Network by Adrian Taylor, 2026-10-05. If you work there and would rather this page came down, say so and it comes down.
Independent Food Aid Network: what the records show, and what we could do together
Adrian Taylor runs Charity in a Box, after twenty years working in charities and public services. About Adrian.
1. What you say, and where we read it
We read your website (Independent Food Aid Network) and your public channels.
Your channels: bluesky (read); x (closed to readers, not read); linkedin (closed to readers, not read); facebook (closed to readers, not read); instagram (closed to readers, not read).
Your latest posts on Bluesky: “www.bigissue.com/news/social-... @sabinegoodwin.bsky.social #CashFirst” (2026-09-29) “📢 New Blog!
Following on from the fourth Cash First Communities conference this past June, Director of @ifanuk.bsky.social Sabine Goodwin,” (2026-07-22)
2. Food aid, from outside
450 charities are in the field by name or membership. 8,148 other charities say in their own latest report that they serve the same people.
Food aid450 charities
Religious activities4,060
Education/training3,470
Poverty relief3,240
General charitable purposes3,182
Economic/community developme…1,727
Disability1,562
Health1,470
Other purposes911
Overseas aid829
Arts, culture, heritage, sci…812
Legal help176
Young people173
Local infrastructure87
Families with young children65
Youth centres36
Mental health34
Veterans34
Homelessness34
the fieldother charities naming its people, by register purposeof those, in another field on this site
Your members against the rest of the field
Measure
Members
Rest of the field
Fragile (share)
20%
10%
Government-dependent (share)
8%
3%
Reserves, months (median)
3.3
6.3
Income change over returns, % (median)
18.6
27.2
Report names the people (share)
86%
99%
Areas with little or no presence of your network, those with the most residents on low incomes first: Wolverhampton, Bradford, Rochdale, Nottingham, Stoke-on-Trent, Ealing, North East Lincolnshire, Coventry, Rotherham, Derby.
Researchers who studied how charities support people with dementia across the United Kingdom concluded:
“National and local data sources could help charities and commissioners begin to identify inequalities of provision.”
Mayrhofer, Goodman, Lafortune, Smeeton, Littlechild, Shora and Bunn, Voluntary Sector Review, first published 2021. Read the paper.
This page is that view for your field.
3. Sample campaign
Three posts in your voice from the figures above, each with its picture, ready to use. Every figure is from public information and no charity is named.
Bluesky / X: 8,148 charities outside food aid say in their own reports that they serve the same people, against 450 in the field. Who they are, by what they do: https://www.charityinabox.uk/offers/independent-food-aid-network.html
LinkedIn: 8,148 charities outside food aid say in their own reports that they serve the same people, against 450 in the field. Who they are, by what they do: https://www.charityinabox.uk/offers/independent-food-aid-network.html
Built from public information; no charity is named.
Bluesky / X: 20% of the network's members show under three months' reserves or three years of deficits, against 10% of the rest of the field. https://www.charityinabox.uk/offers/independent-food-aid-network.html
LinkedIn: 20% of the network's members show under three months' reserves or three years of deficits, against 10% of the rest of the field. https://www.charityinabox.uk/offers/independent-food-aid-network.html
Built from public information; no charity is named.
Bluesky / X: 31 of England's 152 county and unitary areas have little or no presence of the network for the people counted there; Wolverhampton, Bradford, Rochdale first. https://www.charityinabox.uk/offers/independent-food-aid-network.html
LinkedIn: 31 of England's 152 county and unitary areas have little or no presence of the network for the people counted there; Wolverhampton, Bradford, Rochdale first. https://www.charityinabox.uk/offers/independent-food-aid-network.html
Built from public information; no charity is named.
What your field can't see from inside it: the page on our site, in full, refreshed each quarter.
£1,500, £4,000 or £9,000 a year, by your income band, never negotiated
The members' licence
Each of your members gets its own view: where it stands beside the rest of the field, what is thin in its area, who else is at work there.
included in the year
A campaign from the findings
Posts and pictures in your voice from your field's own figures, for your channels.
£250 a month
The first month: a twenty-minute call, your page in full within a week, and the first campaign posts the week after. Prices are set by income band from the public register and are the same for everyone in the band.
5. How to say yes
Reply to the email with a day that suits, call or text Adrian on the number in the email (it is on the Contact page too), or write to adrian@charityinabox.uk.
What this can and cannot say. These are counts over groups of charities and places from their own returns and reports and from national statistics. They do not rank any charity, name any, or say why. A thin field is one where the known network is thin for the people counted here, not one where nobody is helped.
Built from public information: the Charity Commission for England and Wales register and the annual reports charities file with it (OGL v3.0); Census 2021 (ONS); the English Indices of Deprivation 2025 (MHCLG); the Claimant Count (ONS). Privacy.
