Shrewsbury Rotary club's food hub donations support 1,500 people
Monthly donations made by a Rotary club to Shrewsbury Food Hub have been helping hundreds of people.
Members of Shrewsbury Severn Rotary Club heard at their latest Zoom meeting that surplus food is supporting 1,500 individuals and families in the town.
Shrewsbury Food Hub said it had increased the amount of food it can share from one tonne to two tonnes a week, switching to a seven day week operation and tapping into new sources of food.
For the summer holidays, the food hub has created six new “foodshares” so that people can collect surplus food every day of the week.
The charity said it was ‘thanks to the generosity’ of people like Rotarians that they now had increased freezer capacity which allowed them to rescue, store and distribute more nutritious chilled and frozen food.
A letter of thanks from those running the food hub said: “As a small charity we have expanded as much as possible to meet the increased need caused by Covid-19 and are now preparing to support our community with food through the coming recession.
“Your donation will allow us to continue and improve the valuable services we provide to the local community and enable us to expand our ongoing strategy for increasing food resilience in Shrewsbury.
“As you know, half of all your donations goes to Shrewsbury Food Bank and they are also doing an amazing job.
“Your kindness and generosity are enormously appreciated at this very critical time and allows the food hub to continue having a positive impact on the community.”
Members of Shrewsbury Severn Rotary Club who cannot meet due to coronavirus restrictions have agreed to each donate £10 per week to the food hub.
Rotarians are concerned that many of the effects of the pandemic and lockdown are yet to be felt and will start to manifest themselves when the furlough scheme finishes.
Rotarian John Yeomans, who chairs Shrewsbury Severn Rotary Club’s community and vocational committee, said: “Calls for assistance from charities will probably significantly escalate, especially from food banks.
"The Barnabas group has been stockpiling food in anticipation of difficult times ahead.”
