Privacy & Cookies

Privacy Notice

Gillingham Foodbank (hereinafter also referred to as “We” “Our” or “Us”) is a data controller registered with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office registration number Z280334X.

Keeping your personal information safe is very important to us.  We are committed to complying with privacy and data protection laws and being transparent about how we use personal data. We have policies, procedures, and training in place to help our team understand their data protection responsibilities and follow the principles of data protection.

Gillingham Foodbank is a member of the Trussell network of over 1,300 food bank centres throughout the UK which together make up the Foodbank Network. We have a nominated member of staff who serves as our Data Protection Lead. If you have any questions regarding our privacy policy, please email [email protected] This privacy notice relates to personal information that Gillingham Foodbank collects and uses.

How and when we collect personal information

• We may collect your personal information from you directly when you:
  Communicate with us for any reason, by post, telephone, text, email, social media, or via our website
• Fundraise for, or donate to Gillingham Foodbank
• Donate food or are referred to us for support
• Participate in a survey or research
• Work or make an application to work or volunteer with us
• Agree to help us promote our cause
• Take part in our participation work as an expert by experience to advocate for change
• Interact with us as a supplier, contractor, consultant, or in any other capacity.

We may also collect personal information about you from other organisations. For example, this might be from another food bank within the Foodbank Network, a referral agency like a doctor’s surgery, occupational health, or from your current or past employer.

The personal information that we collect

We only collect personal information that we genuinely need. This may include:

• Contact details such as name, address, email address, and phone numbers

• Date of birth

• Gender

• Nationality

• Any information that you give us relating to your circumstances and why you need to use the food bank

• Dietary requirements

• Health information, such as allergies or disability-related access requirements

• Information you provide when you donate food at a food bank

• Information you provide when you correspond with us

• Information you provide when interacting with our websites

• Financial information that you provide to us

• Other information about you from publicly available sources, like the electoral roll

• Information requested from the Disclosure and Barring Service, when applicable to certain roles for safeguarding purposes

For job and volunteer applicants:

• • your bank account details and tax and residency status

  • references from previous employers or educational institutions

  • contact details for you, and any next of kin

  • qualifications

  • information concerning your health and medical conditions

  • information about your race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation

  • details of unspent criminal convictions.

Our legal basis for processing personal information

Our legal basis for processing personal information is usually for our legitimate interests, if we have your consent, for the performance of a contract or to meet our legal obligations.

We may collect and use your personal data if it is necessary for our legitimate interest and so long as its use is fair, balanced, and does not unduly impact your rights.

We will ask for your consent to send you marketing emails and text messages. You can withdraw consent for this at any time.

Usually, we will only process sensitive personal data¹ if we have your explicit consent. In extreme situations, we may share your personal details if we believe someone’s life is at risk.

We may process personal information because it is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party (or to take steps at your request prior to entering a contract), or because we are legally obliged to do so (for example to meet employment or charity laws).

Why we collect personal information

We collect and use personal information about people who use food banks, people who support our food bank, people who attend events (such as meetings or workshops), job applicants, and volunteers for a number of reasons. These different reasons why we collect and use personal information are given in the paragraphs which follow.

Providing support to people that use food banks

We collect personal information about you if you use our food bank, or via an organisation that refers you to a food bank. Our legal basis for using this information is our legitimate interest, and in instances where you have given your explicit consent. We use this information to respond to your need for help and ensure that we are providing help when and where it is most needed. Trussell works with food banks within our network to use anonymised statistical data (information that cannot be used to identify you) to campaign at a regional and national level to challenge the structural issues that lock people into poverty.

Developing and managing relationships with supporters

Our work is made possible by the generosity of our supporters. We need a good understanding of our supporters so that we can communicate with them effectively and appropriately. We may research our existing and prospective supporters to develop a better understanding of their interests and actions in support of our work. In this way, we will manage the marketing and communication preferences of our supporters. You have the right to opt-out from this activity at any time. If you would prefer us not to use your personal information in this way, please email us at [email protected]

Processing donations, gift aid claims, legacies and pledges

If you kindly make a food or a financial donation to us, we will use your personal information to collect your donation and maintain a record of our supporters. Our legal basis for using your personal information for this purpose is to fulfil our legal obligations, and our legitimate interest in meeting our fundraising objectives. We are legally required by HMRC to collect some personal information if you choose to gift aid your donation.

Dealing with complaints and appeals

If a complaint is raised with us, we will process any personal information provided to manage and resolve the complaint or appeal. This may include sharing relevant information (including contact information) with a third-party agency or person that the complaint has been made about. Our legal basis for using personal information for this purpose is legitimate interest.

If you make a complaint about an individual and this forms part of their personal data and the individual requests access to it, we will seek to remove personal information identifying you first. In some situations, we may be obliged to provide your personal data. We will seek your consent before providing the information but may be required to provide this even if you do not consent.

Promoting our cause

We work alongside people who have lived experience of poverty and destitution to raise the profile of our cause. We will use personal information that you share with us if you agree to help us promote our cause. This might include photographs and videos. For example, we may use your information in case studies and stories that we publish or share with the media. We will seek to anonymise your information wherever possible and will only use your information for this purpose if you have given your consent for us to do so.

Carrying out surveys and research

If you choose to take part in one of our surveys, we will use the personal information that you provide to process the results of the survey and undertake analysis. Survey results are anonymised before being shared or published. Our legal basis for using your personal information for this purpose is for our legitimate interests, or in instances where you have given your consent.

Employee administration and development

We will process personal information of our employees to fulfil our contract with them and to meet our legal obligations as an employer. This includes payroll processing and the provision of training. We are required by law to share some financial information with the HMRC. We may also need to share some personal information with other organisations (for example solicitors or pension providers). A full privacy statement for employees is available by contacting [email protected]

Employee recruitment

We may collect your information in a variety of ways. For example, data might be contained in application forms, CVs or résumés, obtained from your passport or other identity documents, or collected through interviews or other forms of assessment, including online assessments. We may also collect personal data about you from third parties, such as recruitment services, references supplied by former employers, information from employment background check providers and information from criminal records checks and the Disclosure and Barring Service when applicable to the role. We need to process your data prior to entering into a contract with you, to meet our legal obligations, or for our legitimate interests. We will not use your data for any purpose other than recruitment. A privacy statement for job applicants is included in the recruitment pack.

Volunteer Management

If you apply to be a volunteer with Gillingham Foodbank, your personal information will be used to process your volunteering application. Your personal information is held by us in line with our data protection and privacy policies.

Undertaking safeguarding activities including DBS checks

When necessary, we process relevant personal information about employees and volunteers for safeguarding purposes. This might include undertaking DBS and other checks to identify any criminal and other activity we need to be aware of. It may be necessary to share some personal information with relevant authorities such as the police. Our legal basis for this processing is to meet our legal obligations.

Processing expenses

We will use your personal information including your bank account details to process expense claims. Our legal basis for using your information for this is for the performance of a contract.

Governance

We process relevant personal information about existing and potential trustee members for governance purposes. This might include checks to identify any criminal and other activity we need to be aware of to ensure that we select appropriate trustees. Our legal basis for this processing is to meet our legal obligations with the Charity Commission and Companies House.

Health, safety and security

We will process limited personal data about attendees to our premises whether those attendees are employees, contractors, volunteers, or members of the public. We do this to ensure the health and safety of people inside the building as well as the security of the building and its contents. Our legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interest.

Cookies, web beacons and other storage technologies used on our website

Gillingham Foodbank uses a website managed and run by the Trussell Trust. They use cookies and other tracking technologies to store information about how you use our website. A cookie is a piece of data stored on a user’s computer to remember information about you and create a profile of your viewing preferences. Your profile is used to tailor your visit to our website, make navigation easier, and direct you to information that best corresponds to your interests. We require your consent to place non-essential cookies on your device. You can change your cookie preferences by selecting the button in the bottom left corner from any page on our website. For further information on Trussell Trust’s cookies policy and how it applies to our website, view the Trussell Trust cookies policy.

Sharing personal information

We will only share your personal information where we need to, where someone’s life is at risk or we are required to do so by law.

We may share your information with our bank to process a payment; our professional advisers (such as our legal advisers) where it is necessary to obtain their advice; HMRC if you are an employee; and our IT service providers and data storage providers. We may also share your personal data with other food banks in the Foodbank Network², who will use the personal data for the purposes described in this privacy notice.

Where required, we will process personal information to comply with our legal obligations. In this respect we may share your personal data to comply with subject access requests; tax legislation; for the prevention and detection of crime; and to assist the police and other competent authorities with investigations including criminal and safeguarding investigations.

We might share your information across different parts of Trussell for research, analysis and marketing.

International transfers of personal data

Gillingham Foodbank does not transfer personal data of any sort outside of the UK.

Your rights

If you no longer wish to receive communications about Gillingham Foodbank, the work that we do and how you can help us, please contact [email protected] or click on the link within emails to unsubscribe to further emails.

You also have the right to:

• Ask us for a copy of your personal information. There are some exemptions, which mean you may not always receive all the information we process.

• Tell us to change or correct your personal information if it is incomplete or inaccurate.

• Ask us to restrict our processing of your personal data or to delete your personal data if there is no compelling reason for us to continue using or holding this information.

• Receive from us the personal information we hold about you which you have provided to us, in a reasonable format specified by you, so that you can send it to another organisation.

• Object, on grounds relating to your specific situation, to any of our processing activities where you feel this has a negative and disproportionate impact on you.

For all requests, please contact us at [email protected] . We will respond to any request within 28 days. Please note that we may be entitled to refuse requests where exceptions apply; for example, if we have reason to believe that the personal data we hold is accurate or we can show our processing is necessary for a lawful purpose set out in this Privacy Notice.

How long we keep your personal information

We will hold your personal information only for as long as is necessary. We will not retain your personal information if it is no longer required. In some circumstances, we may legally be required to retain your personal information, for example for finance, employment, or audit purposes. A summary of our retention periods is available below:

People who need help from a food bank	Your personal information is stored in a secure database for six years from the date you last accessed support.
People who donate food at a food bank	Where you provide personal information alongside your food donation, your personal information is stored in a secure database for three years from the date you last donated.
People signing up to a campaign	Your personal information is stored in a secure database for up to two years from the date you last took an action.
Financial donors	Your personal information is stored in a secure database for seven years from the date you last donated.
Volunteers (inc. people engaged in our participation projects)	If your application is unsuccessful, or if you stop volunteering, your information will be held for twelve months unless we’re obliged to keep it longer. In which case, we only keep necessary information.
Survey and research participants	Twelve months after survey is completed. Then results are anonymised.
Promoting our work through sharing your story, photographic images and videos	Only anonymised case studies are used to inform of the work and impact of Gillingham Foodbank
Representatives of referral agency partners	Two years after the date of the last referral made.
Representatives of food banks in the network	Twelve months after a person ceases to be connected to a food bank.
Complainants	Six years if the complaint is upheld, three years if the complaint is not upheld.
Employees	Six years plus current year after employment ceases
Website users	See Trussell Trust’s cookie policy

Changes to this policy

This privacy notice may change from time to time. We recommend that you visit this webpage periodically to keep up to date with the changes. This policy was last updated in June 2025.

Making a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office

If you are not satisfied with our response to any query you raise with us, or you believe we are processing your personal data in a way that is inconsistent with the law, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, helpline number is: 0303 123 1113.