charity appeals for storage for overwhelming donations to foodbank

A charity is appealing for much needed storage space, after a very positive response to a Reverse Advent Calendar campaign delivered almost eight tonnes of food donations to the East Yorkshire foodbank.
The local arm of the charity is based on Mill Lane in Beverley, with an outlet at Toll Gavel Church. Having received an influx of food parcels, double the amount on the previous year, East Yorkshire foodbank is appealing to local businesses for storage.
Anne Marie Foster, Chair of the East Yorkshire foodbank has spent the Christmas period in awe of the generosity of the local community. She says:
“We know that typically donations drop off after the Christmas period, so we set a target to bring in enough to help the people who rely on us for food until the Spring. As a result it is such wonderful feeling to be able to say we have enough food to take us past our target and we no longer need to worry about running out.”
“All of our team were so happy with the amount of food we have received but unfortunately, our facility does not allow us to store this amount of food and now we are hoping a business based in Beverley will have an area we can use that is secure, water tight, insured and based locally so that we can easily transport the stock between sites.”
“It makes us very happy to  see that local people, especially the younger generations understand poverty. A student from Longcroft School came along with her donations all pre-sorted into bags for us to hand out. Another gentleman filled two supermarket trollies, spending over £200 and said he was going to give the receipt to his Mother for Christmas as a gift and, a group of soldiers from the MOD at Leconfield brought us a massive collection worth a few hundred pounds.”
“Initially we planned for our next challenge to drive up financial donations to cover the cost of storage, maintain the building, cover insurances and other outgoings but we hope someone might be able to offer this type of help.”
“Of course we are still hoping to raise some money to help us plan for the future and would like to raise awareness of our 200 Club, where 200 people donate £5 per month each. This level of income will help us to budget effectively and demonstrate to potential funders that our foodbank is sustainable.”
For further information about this, please visit www.eastyorkshire.foodbank.org.uk.