Privacy policy

foodbanks.co.uk (“we”, “us”) operates this website, a free, independent directory of food banks, pantries and community larders in the United Kingdom. We are a directory. We are not a food bank, we do not hold food, issue vouchers, take referrals or give advice.

For the purposes of UK data protection law we are the data controller for personal data collected through this website. You can reach us at info@foodbanks.co.uk or through our contact page.

• Messages you send us. If you use our contact form, report a listing issue, or email us about supporting the directory, we receive the name, email address and any other details you choose to include in that message.
• Listing corrections. Information you submit about a food bank listing, including any contact details you give so that we can verify the correction.
• Technical data. Our hosting provider records standard server log information such as IP address, browser type and the pages requested, for security, abuse prevention and reliability.
• Supporter enquiries and payments. If your business applies to support a county, we collect your business name, contact name, email, telephone, website, logo and billing details. Card details are entered directly with our payment provider and are never seen or stored by us.
• Analytics and advertising data. Google Analytics uses page and device information only when the required consent is confirmed. Google AdSense and its partners may process device identifiers, IP addresses and ad interactions according to your choices and applicable requirements. See our cookie policy.

Location. If you use “Use my location” to search, your browser asks your permission and the coordinates are used in your browser to sort nearby results. We do not store your location or link it to you.

We do not ask for, and ask that you do not send us, sensitive personal information such as details of your health, finances or household circumstances. We cannot arrange food support for you.

• To reply to your enquiry or correction — legitimate interests (running and maintaining an accurate public directory and responding to people who contact us).
• To keep the site secure and working — legitimate interests (security, fraud and abuse prevention, service reliability).
• To measure how the site is used — your consent, given through the cookie banner and withdrawable at any time.
• To support the directory through advertising — consent for advertising cookies and personalisation where required. Google may also serve limited ads where permitted without consent; its consent message explains purposes, partners and applicable legal bases.
• To handle supporter enquiries, payments and profile pages — steps taken at your request before entering a contract, performance of that contract, and our legal obligations for accounting records.

We do not sell the personal information you submit through our forms. Advertising services may process visitor information as described below and in the consent message. We use a small number of processors and third-party services which may process data on our behalf or as independent controllers:

• Our website hosting and content delivery provider.
• Our email provider, to receive and reply to your messages.
• Google, for maps and directions on listing pages, and for Google Analytics where you have given the required consent, and Google AdSense and its advertising partners for ad delivery, measurement and permitted personalisation.
• Stripe, our payment provider, where a business pays to support a county. Stripe handles card details as an independent controller under its own privacy policy.

Google’s consent message lets visitors in the UK, EEA and Switzerland consent, decline or manage advertising purposes and partners. You can change your choices through Cookie settings in the footer. For information about Google’s use of data, see Google’s privacy information. Business supporters’ profiles are ordinary directory content; we do not share visitors’ personal information with those supporters.

Some of these providers process data outside the UK. Where that happens, transfers are protected by UK adequacy regulations or the International Data Transfer Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses.

We use artificial intelligence tools to help research and draft some of the directory content, area descriptions and site copy. A human reviews, edits and fact-checks this material before it is published.

We do not use AI to make automated decisions about individuals. Personal data you submit through our forms is not used to train, fine-tune or improve any third-party AI model. Where an AI provider processes personal data on our behalf, it does so only to provide the service and under appropriate contractual safeguards.

• Enquiry and contact emails: up to 24 months from your last contact with us.
• Listing corrections: kept for as long as the listing is published, so we have a record of where the information came from.
• Server logs: typically up to 12 months.
• Supporter records, including payment and invoice records: 7 years, to meet UK accounting and tax requirements.
• Consent choices: stored by Google’s consent message; retention may vary. See our cookie policy.

Under the UK GDPR you have the right to:

• ask for a copy of the personal data we hold about you;
• have inaccurate data corrected;
• ask us to erase your data, or restrict how we use it;
• object to processing that relies on our legitimate interests;
• ask for your data in a portable format, where that right applies;
• withdraw consent at any time, without affecting processing before withdrawal.

To exercise any of these rights, email info@foodbanks.co.uk. We will respond within one month. If you are unhappy with our response you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk, or by calling the ICO helpline.

Directory entries describe organisations, not individuals. We publish business contact details that the organisation has itself made public. If you are named in a listing and would like it changed or removed, email info@foodbanks.co.uk or use our report a listing issue form and we will act promptly.

This site is intended for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe a child has sent us personal data, contact us and we will delete it.

The site is served over HTTPS and access to the mailbox and site administration is restricted and password protected. No online service can be guaranteed completely secure, but we take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your information.

We review this policy regularly. This version was last updated on 1 November 2026. Any future changes will be published on this page with a new date.