Helping Those That Are Helping Others
This article will take approximately 5 minutes to read
Published 24 Dec 2021 in Phil's blog
Yesterday I travelled up to Shropshire to visit one of our food bank partners, Shrewsbury Food Hub who have been operating since 2016. Setting up the hub meant that more food was being saved from going to waste, and provided a wider variety of food to those in need in the local community.
I made the visit to see first-hand the difference they are making in their local community, and how our support is helping them to continue to help those most in need - especially at this time of the year when food banks are even more in demand.
In 2019 we supported them with a £250 grant, which supported 20 new volunteers in providing them with essential training.
In February this year, we supported Shrewsbury Food Hub with another £250 grant to help buy much-needed equipment, and for support to continue with the ongoing food redistribution project and service to the community.
Over the past few years, our Bicton Heath Your Co-op Food store has developed a strong relationship with the hub, providing food that would have ordinarily gone to waste, along with donations from our members and customers.
Watch the video below to see how my visit went and find out more about the wonderful work that the volunteers at the hub do every day...
I’m extremely proud of all the work we’re doing to support food justice, having established partnerships with 70 food banks across our communities, working with our members and customers to donate products to these groups.
I'm especially delighted with the wonderful activities and initiatives that we've introduced over the festive period including:
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Promoting food bank donations
- The festive period is often the busiest time of the year for food banks, and with the pandemic the demand has continued to rise. To support them in December we've been promoting our food donation points in all our Your Co-op Food Stores
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Donating excess food to food banks
- Throughout the week beginning 3rd January, our Food Markets will be donating their excess food to their local food banks each day, cutting our food waste in these stores to zero
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Food bank fund
- We've reopened our food bank fund for the month of December, with all donations will be given directly to our partner food banks, which will go a long way to help the most vulnerable in your area. This will add to the £50,000 the fund has contributed to our food bank partners in the past!
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Cooking on a budget
- Our in-store chefs will be raising awareness of how to cook on a budget by creating recipe cards & videos
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Providing food boxes to vulnerable children
- We have been creating and delivering food boxes to families of vulnerable children during the Christmas holidays
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Too Good to Go Donations
- Throughout December, every magic bag purchased through the Too Good To Go app, we will be donating 50p, which will also be matched by Too Good To Go, to the food bank fund
If you missed my Christmas video message to you all last week, you can click here to watch it.
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Merry Christmas!