A thank you seems so inadequate for the response our community has made over the past few months. In all honesty it’s been overwhelming. In response to the huge need people in our community have faced we have experienced sustained and sacrificial generosity from so many individuals, families, organisations, and companies.
We’ve had to adopt new ways of working throughout the Corona virus crisis which have meant fewer volunteers at our Weston base. We were able to work with a lot of other organisations to set up satellite collection points across Weston. As the Covid crisis progressed we soon ran out of space at our base and needed additional warehouse space. We were delighted when Milton Baptist Church allowed us to use their wonderful building.
At one point we had over 8 different collection points available across Weston to make sure people in need could still get hold of emergency food parcels.
It wasn’t just organisations that stepped up to help so many individuals too: local people organising local collections. It’s impossible for us to feature all of them here but one that stood out was Ben. As part of the Volunteering section for his Bronze Duke of Edinburgh, Ben was originally keen to help the environment – but instead he chose to volunteer his time to those in need in his community by supporting our foodbank.
“I had a chat with my mum and we had some ideas. We knew vulnerable people would be struggling to pay for food and we had seen on social media that the foodbank were running low on supplies.”
This prompted a call to action from Ben: “We put a message on our local community Facebook page to see if people would support me by doing a bulk weekly collection.”
Ben wasn’t the only one keen to support this worthy cause – and the community gathered round to donate to his efforts. “I would put a box outside my house for people to drop items in. I also offered to collect from doorsteps, driveways and porches.
“The response was staggering! Each week my mum’s car boot has been full, and the back seat.”
And of course Ben is just one of so many generous people who have given of their time, energy and money to ensure we could provide emergency food parcels.