STRATFORD Foodbank has come up with a wheelly good solution as demand surges by almost 50 per cent.
Volunteers are looking to purchase a van to help them support people both in Stratford town and the outlying rural areas.
They also hope that having a van will enable them to set up ‘pop up’ foodbanks in local villages and warm hub locations over next winter.
They are calling on anyone interested in helping with the provision of a van to contact their business co-ordinator Mo by emailing [email protected]
The Foodbank reports that it had an “amazing level of donations” in the run up to Christmas from individuals, businesses, schools, churches, community groups and through its supermarket and other donation basket networks.
A total of 10.9 tonnes of food donations were processed in December by the foodbank’s warehouse volunteers.
And it was fortunate that the donation level was so high, says Stratford Foodbank’s Manager Kate Morris, as in December the foodbank had to support 479 people with food parcels. This was the highest number of people to need their support in a single month since they opened their doors in August 2013.
In addition, they put together and distributed 459 hampers, which benefited 1197 local adults and children.
Kate continued: “January continued to be a very busy month, we fed 414 people, making a two-month total of nearly 900 people supported. This is a 47 per cent increase on December 21/January 22 – which is an alarming statistic.”
But once again Stratford Foodbank is in urgent need of donations.
Kate explained: “Unfortunately donations have significantly dipped since December and we are distributing more food than we are collecting. Clearly this is not a sustainable situation, and we need to work hard to communicate the items we need and encourage donations to support the Foodbank, which is an essential service at this time in our local community.”
Most needed items are UHT milk, milk powder, UHT fruit juice, spray cleaner/bleach, laundry detergent, sugar, noodles and instant mash.
For full details on where to drop off food donations visit https://stratforduponavon.foodbank.org.uk/give-help/donate-food/
