A Suffolk charity providing various services to its local community, including a foodbank, has announced its closure, effective from 31 August, amid what it described as a period of “falling income and rising costs”.
Gatehouse Home Store and Foodbank, which had operated in East Anglia for 40 years and supported more than 3,500 people, said the decision had been “incredibly difficult” but said its financial issues had left the charity without a “viable path forward”.
The charity had previously launched a programme of events to mark its 40th anniversary in April this year in a bid to raise money to ensure its survival.
However, this ultimately proved unsuccessful and the charity announced the closure via a statement posted on Facebook.
‘Serious financial pressures’
The charity said in its statement that “Gatehouse has been “facing serious financial pressures for a number of years”.
“Gatehouse has served this community for 40 years and the work it has done, the lives it has touched, the people it has supported – represents something genuinely special,” the statement reads.
“But we have a responsibility to act with integrity and to protect our ability to meet our obligations to staff, volunteers and the people who depend on us. Continuing in the hope that things would improve was no longer an option.”
The charity added that both cash and goods donations had fallen steadily over the past two years, while grant funding from statutory bodies had also declined significantly.
According to the charity’s most recently filed accounts for the financial year ending 31 March 2025, it reported an annual income of £292,000 against an annual expenditure of £392,000.
The charity said that it would now be focusing on ensuring that its services can be continued by other providers in the area.
