Colleagues at life safety systems specialist CDS have been collecting food and toiletries to help families in need this Christmas.
Their contributions will help make the festive season a little less challenging for a number of households in Lutterworth and the surrounding villages.
Rotary Club member and CDS director Martin Iliffe said he and his fellow Rotarians already supported the Lutterworth Food Bank, and when colleagues debated how they could help the community this Christmas it seemed an obvious choice.
The Leicestershire centre is one of around 1,200 such facilities nationwide overseen by the Trussell Trust, a charity whose longer-term aim is to end the need for food banks in the UK.
Martin explained: “This year food banks across the whole nation have been struggling to keep pace with demand. Market towns like Lutterworth seem relatively affluent on the surface, but there is an undercurrent of families who are struggling, particularly this year, and the demands on the food bank are greater than ever.”
Individual CDS employees brought in grocery contributions themselves and the wider company donated products, using the proceeds of the sale of some of their office equipment to boost their donations.
“The bulk of what we’ve provided is not actually edible produce, as what the food bank says it’s really short of is things like shower gel and shampoo. We’ve majored on toiletries and, because of the time of year, biscuits and more frivolous luxury items like chocolate and that sort of thing. People tend not to supply these. Food banks are overwhelmed with things like baked beans.”
The CDS contributions will be parcelled up into hampers which will be distributed by food bank volunteers into household size parcels for distribution over the next few days.
Last year the Trussell Trust distributed 1.9 million food parcels to some of the 14 million people living in poverty in the UK, 4.5 million of whom are children.
As well as supporting food banks UK-wide, the Trust’s five-year plan to end the need for such centres includes addressing the underlying reasons why people need such facilities, tackling the causes of poverty and creating a compassionate society.
CDS plans to continue to support the food bank during 2021.
- John Keenan from CDS’ stores and logistics department loads up supplies donated to the Lutterworth Food Bank
