Emma Revie will be taking over at the UK's biggest foodbank charity in early 2018
The Trussell Trust has announced that its new chief executive is to be Emma Revie, current head of youth charity Ambition.
Revie, who has been at the helm of Ambition for just 18 months following six years as chief executive of Reynolds Training Academy & Fitness Spa, will start in her new post on 12 February.
She replaces David McAuley who recently left the organisation earlier this year to move to Openhouse, which works with young and vulnerable people. Mark Ward has been acting as interim chief executive over the last few months.
Elizabeth Pollard, chair of the board of trustees at The Trussell Trust, said: “Over the past year alone foodbanks in our network have helped hundreds of thousands of men, women and children referred to them in crisis, and demand is rising. With her enormously impressive track record, we are convinced that Emma has the vision and experience to lead The Trussell Trust through these challenges.”
Revie added: “I am delighted to be appointed as chief executive of The Trussell Trust. The work of our foodbank network is inspiring and I relish the opportunity to work alongside them to tackle poverty and to end hunger in the UK. We face significant challenges ahead with the number of food parcels distributed by our network up by 13% in the first 6 months of this year to 587,000,with 209,000 going to children.
“I want to see the end of the need for emergency food services in our country, to work with Government to ensure that our benefits system provides a genuine safety net for people and work is paid a fair wage, allowing individuals and families to thrive rather than just stave off crisis.”
The Trussell Trust runs a network of 420 foodbanks across the UK.
In the six months since April 2017, the charity announced that it had distributed a record 586,000 three-day emergency food parcels to people in crisis, and has warned that this winter will be see its highest demand to date as welfare reform, including the roll-out of Universal Credit, continues to drive demand.
