Local groups unite to launch Greenstead Foodbank

30 Aug Local groups unite to launch Greenstead Foodbank

Colchester Foodbank with local community support and supported by the East of England Co-op and Colchester Credit Union is now able to offer a weekly satellite outreach foodbank service in Greenstead at Colchester Credit Union Ltd, 7 The Centre, Hawthorn Avenue, Colchester CO4 3PX on Tuesdays from 10am to noon.

Oli Watts, Head of Communications and Community at the East of England Co-op said “Organisations like Colchester Foodbank do vital work in supporting some of the most vulnerable people in our community and we are pleased to be able to play a small part by providing them with space to operate from in Greenstead.”

Nick Rose, Treasurer, Colchester Credit Union said: “Colchester Credit Union is happy to work in partnership with Colchester Foodbank charity to deliver services to local people in need as we share complimentary community values and inevitably clients.”

Cllr Julie Young says “Greenstead ward Councillors are delighted to welcome the foodbank to Greenstead, we wish this wasn’t needed but realise the foodbank acts as a lifeline to many of our constituents”.

Rev Sue Howlett, Team Vicar (Pioneer) Greenstead with St Anne, Colchester says “I do love the idea that the foodbank are the only organisation that wants to go out of business. This is key to what we as a church want to say, as it is a sad reality that we do need Food Banks. We are very pleased therefore that there is going to be a Foodbank at the heart of our community and we pray that it will be a place where people can be helped through the times of crisis and difficulty.”

Colchester Foodbank charity launches urgent appeal for food donations to keep up with the number of people needing support and to help stock the shelves of a new food bank centre in Greenstead.

The combination of opening a new foodbank centre in Greenstead to help people in the area who would otherwise go hungry and rising number of people being referred to the Foodbank for short-term emergency support, has left Colchester Foodbank’s stocks running low for certain items, and the charity has launched an urgent appeal for food donations to ensure they can continue to offer emergency help in the community to people in crisis.

In the first six months of this 2019, the foodbank, which is part of the Trussell Trust’s network, provided over 4,100 three day emergency food bank parcels to people, a significant increase on the 3,100 during the first six months of 2018. Over a third of these went to help children in crisis.