Stratford Foodbank has had its most successful food drive ever, taking an amazing 3.4 tonnes of food in three days. The collection took place at Tesco on the Birmingham Road from Thursday 29th Nov to Saturday Dec 1st, and food the donated is valued at over £5,800.
The collection was a huge team effort and included a rota of over 60 volunteers, all of whom offered at least 2 hours of their time over three days. Tasks included handing out shopping lists, and dating weighing and shelving food in the Foodbank’s warehouse on Tesco’s carpark. Stratford’s business community made a significant contribution with Enterprise vans helping transport food to SITEL -where the Foodbank has some off site storage- and NFU Mutual sending a team of 14 colleagues to assist with the collection. Staff in the supermarket, especially Tesco’s community champion Graham Roberts, made the Foodbank volunteers very welcome.
Foodbank Manager Marion Homer said, “This year’s Christmas collection saw some particularly generous donations by the local traveller community, we are so grateful to them, and to everyone who donated or helped during this food drive. Whilst I am pleased to say the success of this food drive means we can continue to provide emergency help – what I really hope is that one day there won’t be a need for a Foodbank in Stratford at all. Christmas is supposed to be a time for joy ,but we know for many the festive period is increasingly stressful. Last December was our busiest month on record and, reluctantly, we are preparing for more of the same this year. So far in 2018 we have distributed, on average, 200 parcels a month. This is truly shocking, particularly when you consider that in 2013, the year our service started, that monthly average was 85”.
About Stratford upon Avon Foodbank:
- Since starting in Jan 2013, Stratford’s foodbank has distributed 9,465 food parcels, 26% of which were for children.
- In 2017, the foodbank distributed 2,162 parcels
- In 2018 (up to the end of Sept), the foodbank distributed 1802 parcels, meaning they are on track to distribute 2,400 by the year-end.
- This is up 11% on the previous year.
- In 2018 30% of parcels went to children,
- In 2018 an average 200 parcels a month have been distributed
- Most clients visit the foodbank a maximum of 2 times.
- Food parcels are designed for short-term emergency use, each parcel provides 3 days’ worth of nutritionally balanced tinned and packet food
- Find out more at https://stratforduponavon.foodbank.org.uk/
To look at a Flickr stream detailing all the activity of the food drive please click here and here.
Marion
Marion Homer | Foodbank Manager
