C. Policy – Privacy Policy

As a food bank, we collect personal information about our clients, volunteers and referrers. We are committed to protecting your privacy and personal data and complying with the current data protection laws.

This privacy policy explains how we collect, use, store and share your personal information when you visit our website, use our services, make a donation, apply to work or volunteer for us or interact with us in any other way.

How we collect personal information

  • Online form when registering as a referrer 
  • Online form when registering as a volunteer
  • Details provided when a client is referred to the food bank
  • Third-party platforms that process donations such as banks, JustGiving, PayPal and others

What information we collect 

  • Contact details such as name, address, email address and phone number
  • For clients referred – Age, gender, Ethnicity of household members, Information relating to financial circumstances that led to the referral
  • For volunteer applicants – next of kin, qualifications, work experience, references
  • For referrer accounts – job role, organisation
  • Technical information such as IP address, browser type, device type or cookies when you visit our website. For more details, please see our Cookies Policy

We only collect what we need to provide you with our services, fulfil our legal obligations or pursue our legitimate interests. We will always ask for your consent before collecting these types of data.

How we use the collected information

We use personal information for various purposes which includes:

  • providing clients with culturally appropriate food parcels or other support services
  • processing your donations and claiming gift aid
  • sending you updates about our work, campaigns and events
  • managing your applications to volunteer for us
  • conducting surveys, feedback or research to improve our services
  • complying with legal obligations such as safeguarding vulnerable people
  • preventing fraud, abuse or misuse of our services
  • maintaining records and accounts

Our legal basis for processing personal information

We will only process your personal information if we have a valid legal basis to do so. The legal basis will depend on the purpose of processing. The main legal basis that we rely on are:

  • consent: where you have given us permission to use your personal data 
  • contract: where we need to use your personal data to perform a contract with you 
  • legal obligation: where we need to use your personal data to comply with the law  
  • legitimate interest: where we have a good reason to use your personal data

How we store and secure personal data

We store your personal data on secure servers and devices that are protected by appropriate technical and organisational measures. We limit access to your personal data to only those staff who need to know it for their work. 

How long we keep personal data

We will only keep your personal data for as long as necessary for the purposes for which we collected it and to comply with our legal obligations. The retention period will vary depending on the type of personal data and the reason for processing it. 

  • Client Information – 5 years from last access
  • Volunteers – 5 years from last volunteer work
  • Referrers – 5 years from last referral

When we no longer need your personal data, we will securely delete or destroy it in accordance with applicable laws.

How we share personal data

We will only share your personal data with other organisations or individuals if they have a legitimate reason to access it and if they agree to respect its confidentiality and security. 

We will not sell, rent or trade your personal data with any third parties for marketing purposes.

Your rights and choices regarding your personal data

  • Your right of access - You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information. 
  • Your right to rectification - You have the right to ask us to rectify personal information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete. 
  • Your right to erasure - You have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances. 
  • Your right to restriction of processing - You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances. 
  • Your right to object to processing - You have the the right to object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
  • Your right to data portability - You have the right to ask that we transfer the personal information you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances.
  • You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you.

Please contact us at https://ethnicfoodbank.org/contact-us if you wish to make a request.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if you are unhappy with how we handle your personal data. You can contact the ICO by visiting their website at https://ico.org.uk/ or calling their helpline on 0303 123 1113.

How to contact us or make a complaint

If you have any questions or comments about this privacy policy or how we use your personal data, please contact us at https://ethnicfoodbank.org/contact-us.

If you have a complaint about how we use your personal data, please contact us first and we will try our best to resolve it. If you are still not satisfied, you can contact the ICO as explained above.

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