By Nancy Brian Mbaya.
This weekend, Trussell Trust Foodbanks across the UK worked in partnership with Tesco stores, asking members of the public to donate to help local people in crisis.
The National Food Collection is a bi-annual event in which the Tesco stores located on Sealand Road and Frodsham Street in Chester participate.
Last year alone, Trussell Trust’s UK Foodbank Network provided support and three days’ emergency food to more than 1 million people, including almost 400,000 children. As well as receiving a parcel of nutritionally balanced, long-life food, foodbank clients and are signposted to services that can provide further, more long-term support.
Volunteers at West Cheshire Foodbank were really encouraged to speak with customers who were enthusiastic about the Food Collection and clearly understood that local people are struggling to put food on the table.We spoke to customers to see what they thought.
Mr and Mrs Fawcett said that with more people going through difficult times, the mere thought of children going without food because their parents cannot provide for them is abhorrent. They decided to donate to the Foodbank out of the little they get from their pension.
Mr Thomas also stated that people are going through difficult times at the moment and felt that there was therefore the need for people in the city to join hands in order to make a difference in the lives of the people who are struggling to feed themselves.
Three year old William was another donor who, prompted by his mother Kate, picked some cans of tinned food for the food collection. Kate said that donating towards Foodbank was really worthwhile and that she believed in teaching her children the importance of helping people who are in need.
Volunteers displayed great enthusiasm and joy as they distributed fliers and prompted shoppers to donate towards the food collection. Will and his wife Celia, who have been volunteering with the Foodbank since it opened in 2012 spoke of how this was an important thing to do in view of the increasing cuts to social services, especially with more children at the receiving end of it all.
Judith described the food collection and the response of the people as highly generous and sacrificial adding that it was only by God’s grace that she wasn't in a situation where she was unable to afford food instead of one where she was able to contribute to support others. Wendy and her husband John revealed that volunteering for the charity is their own little way of giving back to the society.
Alec Spencer, Development Officer at West Cheshire Foodbank said “These collections have been a huge success and we have so many people to thank for that. We’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who donated and to each person who gave their time as a volunteer. Special thanks go to the management and staff at Tesco for their impressive commitment to these collections, to the teams from Lloyds Bank and to Chris Matheson MP and all the local councilors who came along to support us. Last but not least, particular thanks go to our volunteer warehouse co-ordinators Pete Stelfox and Colin Jenkins for their tireless efforts and commitment to organize this whole event. We've now weighed in the food that people have given and can reveal that we collected 5084 kilograms of food which will make a big difference to local people.Thank you."
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| Chris Matheson MP taking part in a Trolley Dash! |
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| Staff at Tesco were so helpful. |
Food items you can donate include:
milk (UHT or powdered), sugar, biscuits or snack bars, tinned meat, tinned
fish, tinned vegetables, instant mashed potatoes, cooking sauces, tinned
tomatoes, jam, fruit juice (Long life), tinned fruit, breakfast cereals, tinned
rice pudding, tinned sponge pudding as well as funds. A list of public placesyou can donate is here.
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