A team of Sovereign Health Care staff recently took some time to volunteer at Bradford Central Foodbank, which operates from The Light Church in BD1.
The Bradford Central Foodbank is a crucial service providing emergency three day food parcels, as well as SIM cards, when available, to those most in need. They also provide a hot lunch and benefits advice, job coaching, CV writing, fuel grants and legal advice. Their service is open from 11am – 2pm on Tuesday, Wednesday and Fridays.
They are dependent on dedicated volunteers to help process donations and make up emergency food parcels, as well as cook lunch for 50+ people a day.
There is a massive demand for their services due to benefit changes and delays, debt, homelessness and domestic violence. Families are sometimes left without any money at all for weeks or months at a time.
On the day, Sovereign staff worked in different areas of the foodbank. Our first group worked in the fresh food area making up emergency parcels. The second group worked in the warehouse organising food donations from large supermarkets. Our third group worked in the Christmas Grotto processing toy donations from the public, making up special Christmas hampers, and helping visitors select Christmas gifts for their children. In addition to our help on the day, Sovereign staff also made donations, which weighed in at a fantastic 70kg of food.
Emma, Corporate Account Manager at Sovereign said, “It was a privilege to be able to support Bradford Central Food Bank on our recent volunteering day. The hard work and genuine care that goes into this project was humbling. It really did drive home how lucky most of us are. There are many people struggling to feed themselves and their families, particularly over the festive period. The role of the foodbank is so important, and they do an amazing job.”
Josie, Foodbank Manager at Bradford Central Foodbank said, “We’d like to thank Sovereign Health Care for coming to help at the foodbank recently with your brilliant team! You all did so well, and we really appreciate your help.
We’d also like to say thank you for bringing a food donation which weighed in at 70.1KG. This is so good and means we can give lots of lovely Christmas food and treats to families who have hit hard times and need to use a foodbank. So many of the families we help are just struggling to survive, so it’s wonderful to be able to give them a Christmas hamper in December, alongside their emergency food parcel.”
Sovereign’s Community Programme has supported the Bradford Central Foodbank for a number of years, donating over £11,000 to the organisation since 2020, including our most recent donation to fund a new cooker, which means they can prepare a wider variety of meals.
For more information about our Community Programme visit our website: https://www.sovereignhealthcare.co.uk/about/community-programme/