Council figures show 5,858 emergency parcels in 2025/26, up 3%, and 733 vouchers in Benn ward alone. Two of the council's advice contracts end in March 2027.
Rugby Foodbank handed out 5,858 emergency food parcels in 2025/26, a 3 per cent rise on the year before. Around 35 per cent of them went to feed children.
The figures are in an impact report that went to Rugby Borough Council’s Cabinet on 8 September. They come with a ward breakdown the council’s own press release left out. Three wards accounted for the largest share of vouchers fulfilled:
- Benn: 733
- Newbold and Brownsover: 359
- New Bilton: 309
Those are the same three wards the council targets with its community association funding, which is not a coincidence. The council picks the organisations it funds using deprivation data.
What £180,377 bought
The report covers every voluntary and community organisation the council paid in 2025/26. The total was £180,377. The council does not publish the split as a single list, so here it is:
- Bedworth, Rugby and Nuneaton Citizens Advice (BRANCAB): £73,000. A procured contract, not a grant.
- Warwickshire Community and Voluntary Action (WCAVA): £39,600. Also a contract.
- Six community associations and partnerships: £8,240 each, plus an optional £1,000 each to hand out microgrants in consultation with ward councillors.
- Rugby Foodbank: £8,792.
- Microgrants: £3,545.
The six are Benn Partnership Centre, Brownsover Community Association, Long Lawford Community Association, New Bilton Community Association, Newbold on Avon Community Partnership and Overslade Community Association. They are funded because they operate in the borough’s most deprived wards.
Our arithmetic: those components only reach the stated £180,377 total if all six associations took the optional £1,000. The report does not say either way.
The return the council is claiming
Two figures are doing most of the work in the council’s “delivers millions” headline, and they measure different things.
Citizens Advice. Rugby Citizens Advice supported 5,309 clients and dealt with 14,931 separate issues, most commonly benefits, tax credits and debt. The report puts the value of the outcomes at more than £5.5 million. That is money reaching residents, not money the council saved.
WCAVA. It supported 172 organisations, recruited 466 volunteers and placed 403 of them, and helped local groups secure £205,672 in external funding. It puts an estimated £1,467,977 economic value on the volunteering itself, which is a modelled figure rather than cash.
Cllr Claire Edwards, portfolio holder for communities, housing and safety, called it “a remarkable return on the investment for our communities”. Cllr Jerry Roodhouse, deputy leader, said the sector “plays a key role in allowing the council to deliver services”.
The part that did not make the press release
Both of the big contracts are running out.
The report states that “current funding arrangements for WCAVA and Brancab will cease on 31 March 2027”. Cabinet will be asked during 2026/27 to decide what, if anything, follows. The contracts began on 1 April 2023 for an initial two years, with an option to extend for two more that the Chief Officer for Communities and Homes exercised in 2025/26. That option is now spent.
The community associations sit on a different clock. Cabinet approved changes to how they are commissioned back on 1 December 2025:
- funding continues through 2026/27 and 2027/28 for associations in the most deprived wards, subject to budget setting
- their service level agreements move from one year to two, ending 31 March 2028
- an extra £18,974 in 2026/27, equal to two associations’ worth, goes to strengthen provision in Hillmorton and Admirals Estate
- further funding in 2027/28 will be considered for two more areas meeting the deprivation criteria, including Eastlands
All of it lands in the same window as the paused abolition of Rugby Borough Council, which was due to transfer these arrangements to a new unitary authority in April 2028.
What your local association actually runs
The impact report lists what each organisation delivered. Some of it is worth knowing about whether or not you follow council reports.
- Benn Partnership Centre: a community fridge stocked through FareShare, a free weekly Meet & Eat community café, ESOL classes four times a week, a work club, computer literacy support, free children’s boxercise for ages 6 to 11, chair-based exercise and tai chi.
- Brownsover Community Association: a free Sunday hot meal through the winter, a Buddy Club for forms and job searches, a youth club run by On Track, a lunch club for older residents, weekly ESOL, and a free Citizens Advice drop-in it funds itself.
- New Bilton Community Association: Jubilee Recreation Ground, Gladstone Green pocket park and the New Bilton Community Orchard, a Wednesday drop-in at Rugby Quaker Meeting House, and cooking sessions that sent participants home with air fryers. It distributed more than 30.
- Newbold on Avon Community Partnership: the Newbold Pantry, open to Newbold and Long Lawford residents for £5 membership, allotment growing workshops, free kickboxing, and a new community orchard at Centenary Park on Parkfield Road.
- Long Lawford Community Association: a weekly post office service, a mobile library every three weeks, an On Track youth club, and funding that keeps local Brownies and chair Pilates affordable.
- Overslade Community Association: a warm hub every other Wednesday in the colder months, craft and cake nights, board game nights and a gardening club. It also stepped in at short notice to host Christmas Day lunch when Benn Partnership Centre’s chef fell ill.
What it means for you
If you need a food parcel, you need a voucher first. Rugby Foodbank works on a referral voucher system. Its distribution point is the Lawn & Retreat next to Benn Hall on Newbold Road, CV21 2LN, closed on bank holidays. The full process is on its own website. It is run in partnership with local churches and facilitated by Hope 4 (Rugby) Ltd, registered charity 1126487.
Free, independent advice is available three days a week. Rugby Citizens Advice runs drop-ins Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, 10am to 2pm, on the first floor of Chestnut House, 32 North Street, CV21 2AG, entered through the North Street car park. There is wheelchair access and blue badge parking. The freephone adviceline is 0808 250 5715, open weekdays 9am to 3.30pm. It also runs an outreach session at Brownsover Community Centre, Bow Fell, CV21 1JF, on Wednesdays from 9.30am to 12.30pm, and an adviser attends Rugby Foodbank on its operating days. Details are on BRANCAB’s Rugby page.
Small grants are still open. Separately from this report, the council has grant pots running for community groups and allotment associations, which we covered when they opened in August. Rugby Lotto, which the report says supports more than 50 good causes in the borough, is the other route for groups wanting unrestricted money.
Read it yourself. The report is item 10 in the Cabinet agenda pack for 8 September 2026. Fair warning: the council publishes the whole meeting as one PDF, and this one is 52MB.
What to watch
The decision on what replaces the Citizens Advice and WCAVA contracts is due at some point in 2026/27, and it will arrive as a Cabinet report rather than an announcement. The extra money for Hillmorton and Admirals Estate depends on the council’s budget being set. And the next set of foodbank figures, covering 2026/27, will show whether a 3 per cent rise was a peak or a trend.
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