On Thursday 11th February, we were visited by ITV Calendar News so they could have an insight into the day to day work we do at Feeding Gainsborough.
Their team followed us round our morning and evening supermarket food collections to see where some of our food comes from and also the long hours, we put in to our work every day. Our first collection each morning is at 7:30am and our last collection each evening is 8:45pm.
They came with us to our delivery at one of our many mini food pantries in the local area, Gainsborough Nursery School. Our mini pantry here is operational 4 days a week, Monday to Thursday, and kept in their school bike shelter. ITV were able to talk to the headteacher of the school, Jo Noble, to see how the food provided helps them support their students and their families.
We were able to show their team one of our family networks ran by an amazing volunteer, Michelle. Our family networks are street level-based support, which enables us to respond better and quicker to identified community need. These are operational every single day, all around Gainsborough and surrounding areas and these networks are frequently expanding. These are just a few of our many outlets for food and our relationships with local organisations and people.
The final outlet for food ITV recorded was our free racks and community fridge and freezer based in the town centre. They are filled every morning, after our mini pantries and family networks are distributed, with the surplus food we have collected that morning and the evening before from local supermarkets. The fridge and freezer are put out 6 days a week and the free rack is put out 7 days a week – anyone is able to collect food from these. The food is not only helping us support those in need but also helping fight food waste and stopping perfectly good and edible food ending up in landfill.
We had a wonderful day with ITV and if you’d like to see their article and video please follow this link… https://www.itv.com/news/calendar/2021-02-12/feeding-gainsborough-the-army-of-volunteers-making-sure-people-dont-go-hungry.