Community
efforts see food provision expanded
Posted on Tuesday 2 June 2020
Whilst the coronavirus pandemic may have forced
many projects providing community meals to temporarily close, work is
continuing to ensure a range of vulnerable residents receive food.
Poole Community Exchange (PCE) usually provides
weekly meals and activities at the Parkstone United Reformed Church. Since lockdown
measures were introduced, PCE has diverted and expanded its efforts to meet the
growing need to provide food to residents in hostels, refuges and others in
need during the pandemic.
Working with FareShare Go
and FareShare Central Southern (Southampton), trays
of surplus food are being distributed to vulnerable people as well as supplies
provided to food banks, local food projects and community groups. PCE’s
operations have significantly increased and a collaborative effort between
staff, volunteers and many local organisations has resulted in over 29 tonnes
of extra food being provided locally in the last eight weeks. That’s over 3,000 miles volunteers have clocked up in
collecting, delivering and redistributing food.
This surplus food is helping to support a variety
of projects and people in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole area,
including:
The scale of PCE’s operation has presented some
logistical challenges and additional fridges and freezers have been purchased
and a number of sites are being used to store the food including local
businesses who have offered their walk-in freezer space. The deliveries have
been made possible thanks to volunteers, plus the probation service providing
three vans and six drivers in addition to Lifeworks’ charity van.
Mark Phillips, Chairman and Trustee of PCE, said:
“The work we are doing during the pandemic is about feeding people and ensuring
no one goes hungry during this time. Our usual community meals project has a
slightly different focus and uses food to help grow relationships and make
connections to provide people with a sense of belonging. When the immediate
food need of the pandemic is over, we’ll reintroduce the community meals and
activities again. We also hope to refurbish our kitchens and are looking to
introduce cooking groups to help people to budget and learn cooking skills.”
Councillor Vikki Slade, Leader of BCP Council,
said: “The scale of work taking place in the community to feed vulnerable
people, redistribute good quality surplus food and reduce food waste is
phenomenal. The council recently introduced a Community Food Co-ordinator role
to support food networks. Whilst the initial challenge has been to support
people to access food during the pandemic, longer term community food projects
include helping people to grow their own food, boosting people’s confidence to
learn new skills and providing basic but essential cooking equipment where
needed.”
Find out more
Poole
Community Exchange
usually supplies food in the form of weekly
community meals, served to between 10 and 20 people at the Parkstone United
Reformed Church. Their aim is to support people who have been marginalised, are
vulnerable or excluded.
FareShare
is the UK’s national network of charitable food
redistributors, made up of 17 independent organisations. FareShare take good quality surplus food from across the food industry and get it to
almost 11,000 frontline charities and community groups.
Together
We Can
- residents who are living in the
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole area who need help to access food or other
vital support, can contact the council’s Covid-19 helpline on 0300 1237052. Alternatively,
complete the
online
form to request help
.
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