Food bank appeal sees 30,000 items donated to help those impacted by Coronavirus in Nottingham

Posted by rob smyth | Published: 01/04/2020


Kind-hearted communities have donated over 30,000 items to an urgent food bank appeal in less than two weeks to help those impacted by Coronavirus in Nottingham.

Central England Co-op launched the campaign after its food bank partners revealed they had seen donations drop and demand risk.

However, despite the amazing community response to the appeal, food banks have pleaded with people to continue to donate vital items as supplies continue to remain low and demand continues to rise by the day.

On average, food banks are seeing a 50% fall in donations coupled with a 100% rise in requests for food parcels with new enquiries coming from people who are self isolating, self employed and families who have children that would normally be getting free school meals.

Food banks being supported by this appeal in Nottingham include Arnold Food Bank, Salcare, and Clifton Food Bank.

Debbie Robinson, Central England Co-op Chief Executive, said: “Our communities continue to do us proud and support this vital food bank appeal.

“Our food bank partners are working around the clock to react to a rise in demand and we can all support in our own little way by donating an item or two so they can carry on their great work during these uncertain times.”

Items needed for the food bank appeal include cereal, tinned food and fruit, tea bags, dried pasta, rice, long life milk, sugar, biscuits, fruit juice and squash, pasta sauce and instant coffee.

Donations will be collected up from Central England Co-op stores and used to create food parcels, which contain around 11 items and will provide at least three days’ worth of meals for those in need.

A spokesman for Arnold food bank said: “You can sense that things are just starting to slowly build up. We are a long way from the top yet. We have moved to delivering parcels, so this puts a new pressure on making sure we are safe, parcels are created for the right people in good time and making best use of our space. Ensuring stock is going to be the challenge ahead. Our Christmas abundance has held us in good stead for the start of this crisis but this will soon be worked through as the need grows.

“Knowing we have bulk supplies in the pipeline would be the best solution but even the smallest donation from customers makes a difference. Our collection point at the Central England Co-op store in Coppice Road Coop is one of the few collection points we have left as all the churches have had to close their doors so please can people donate if they can.”

People can keep up to date with how Central England Co-op is responding to the Coronavirus by visiting www.centralengland.coop/updates

 

Notes to editors

Picture caption: Central England Co-op are working with food banks partners to try and boost donations.

About Central England Co-operative

Central England Co-operative is one of the largest independent retail co-operative societies in the UK with interests in food, funeral, floral, travel and property investment.

 

Co-operatives have always been there for their communities; they were formed to protect them and help them flourish. 

 

Our 7,900 colleagues who serve Members and customers work hard to ensure that co-operative values, principles and spirit flow through everything we do to help support and improve our local communities.

 

Owned by hundreds of thousands of Members, we have over 430 trading outlets across 16 counties including West Midlands, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire. 

 

We are proud of our reputation for ethical business practices and corporate responsibility.

 

We invest a percentage of our trading profit into local communities through our Community Dividend Fund scheme, have donated over £1.3 million to our corporate charity partner Dementia UK and also operate a pioneering food redistribution partnership with FareShare Midlands so unsold food goes to those in need.

 

Visit www.centralengland.coop for more information or follow us on Facebook or Twitter using @mycoopfood

 

 

Press office contacts: Rob Smyth and James Brindle

 

Phone - 01543 421390

 

Email - publicrelations@centralengland.coop