Staff at a leading business organisation have supported a drive to help feed more families in Coventry this Christmas.
A team of ten from the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce and Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber Training went along to the Halo Centre to help pack food to be delivered to a network of food banks across the city.
The Halo Centre is a distribution centre run by Feed the Hungry and offers a range of ways that businesses can get involved with supporting those in food poverty.
The team at the Chamber packed thousands of items to help make recipe bags for a chilli con carne meal including stock cubes, tinned mince beef and tomatoes that will distributed to families in Coventry.
The packs are for a specific packing project this winter which are being created in partnership with Coventry City Council and Groundwork to pack and deliver 2,000 food hampers for the Christmas holidays under the council's HAF (Holiday and Activity Fund) programme.
The parcels, which include kitchen cupboard essentials and fresh fruit and vegetables will teach children invaluable, life-long cooking skills and enable families to come together to prepare and enjoy food to celebrate the festive season.
As well as packing food, the Halo Centre also offers business conferencing space to help create revenue to further support the effort to feed more people in need.
Sophie Brew, of the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, said: “We were all very proud to support the efforts to help ensure people across Coventry don’t go hungry.
“We all enjoyed the experience and it got quite competitive between a men’s and a women’s team but we also knew the seriousness of what we were doing and the impact it will make. Many more of the team would have come with us on the day but, because of Covid-19 restrictions, only ten were allowed on site at the time.
“It came about when the team from the Coventry Foodbank met our membership manager at a Chamber networking event and got talking about how we can help and also how we can encourage other businesses to get involved too.
“Between us and Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber Training, we also collected in a lot of food to take along with us on the day as well as taking part in the packing.
“We would all definitely recommend attending the Halo Centre to see the brilliant work that the whole team do as that can have a really positive impact on people most in need in the city.”
Coventry Foodbank, operated by Feed The Hungry UK, will feed more than 20,000 people across the city in 2021. Gavin Kibble, Regional Director for Feed The Hungry UK, said support from companies across Coventry was vital in ensuring that positive work can continue.
Gavin said: “It was great to have the Chamber of Commerce team on-site helping us to pack food that will be sent out to children and families locally this Christmas. The support of local businesses is vital to the running of our charity and we were delighted that the Chamber wanted to support us and share the work that we do across the business community in Coventry and Warwickshire.”
For more information on getting involved, go to https://feedthehungry.org.uk/volunteering/ or email claire@feedthehungry.org.uk
Pictured: The Chamber team at the Halo Centre