food bank

Generous community health staff have pulled out the stops to help families in crisis this Christmas by donating vital supplies to help make sure local people don’t go hungry over the festive period.

Staff working across Norfolk for Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust (NCH&C) have been generously donating supplies to food banks to make Christmas easier for families in need, with a staggering 240kg of food collected in the Trust’s HQ over the past year.

In addition, the West Norfolk Diabetes Team decided to ditch their secret Santa tradition, and instead donated the £40 they would have spent, together with advent calendars for children, to King’s Lynn Food Bank.

Julie WiddowsonDiabetes Service Lead with NCH&C, said: “As a team, we agreed to use the money we’d normally spend on secret Santa gifts to help others in need this Christmas. We’re delighted that we’ve been able to donate £40 to the King’s Lynn Food Bank, along with some advent calendars for children to enjoy.

“We hope our donation helps to put a smile on the faces of families in crisis this festive season.”

Food banks provide emergency food supplies to vulnerable people who have nowhere else to turn. In 2013/14, they fed 913,138 people nationwide, of which 330,205 were children.

NCH&C staff in Norwich have been collecting for the local food bank since last year, and made an extra special effort in the run up to Christmas, with many picking up spare tins while doing their weekly shop or looking in their cupboards for unwanted groceries.

Kings Lynn Food Bank

HR Assistant Michelle Hanke, who came up with the idea for starting the food bank collection after noticing the amount of food that goes to waste in the office, said: “We set up the collection to make a positive difference to local families and people in need.

“So far, we have donated 240kg of food to the Norwich Food Bank, which has fed 34 people for three days. That’s a really fantastic achievement and I’m grateful to all of my colleagues for their ongoing support.

“Christmas is a time of plenty for most of us, and it’s easy to take it for granted and forget that some people are struggling, through no fault of their own.

“The donations that we make can be the difference between a family having food on the table or going hungry, especially at this time of year.”

To find your nearest food bank, visit: http://www.trusselltrust.org/map

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