Food bank collections are needed!
“Thanks to Intouch Games and Intouch Global Foundation! Without your regular donations, we wouldn’t get the help and support we need, and we wouldn’t be able to carry on!” – Pastor Sam Guille at Franche Church.
Wyre Forest Food Bank is based at Franche Community Church and for over ten years, the Food Bank has provided emergency relief to those in need in the wider community. Being very community-focused, especially in Kidderminster, Stourport and Bewdley in the West Midlands, UK, the church provides a place for people to gather, eat and worship.
The food in the boxes is put together by volunteers at the church is usually enough to last people around three days. With a handful of passionate volunteers, the church works hard to put boxes together and deliver them to individuals and families via a volunteer delivery service. There are about 90 boxes that are delivered each week and around half of these are to families with children.
Foodbank and Covid
During the pandemic, the need for boxes, sadly, increased from around 40 a week to around 200 a week! Fortunately, this number has since declined but is still stands at around 100 a week. In fact, so many boxes are now being used that Franche Community Church is now having to bring in help from other local churches to pack the boxes. As well as this, there is a select criteria of 16 categories of food to fill the boxes and volunteers at the bank often have to buy extras out of their own pocket!
Collections for food are currently made at several local points across the Black Country in the West Midlands, UK and these donations come from regular people. Morrisons, one of the largest supermarket chains in the UK, also kindly donates dry goods and fresh produce. While another local food bank, Kidderminster Food Bank, also donates surplus foods to Wyre Forest Food Bank if it doesn’t have the space to store everything.
All these donations are very generous and are helping lots of people in need. It certainly is great to see the local community coming together in times like this! However, despite all these donations, it isn’t always enough, and the Food Bank always welcomes more! The church is now working with The Trussell Trust, a UK charity created with a focus on ending hunger, to help make sure there is enough food for those that need it.
Wyre Forest Food Bank meets on Tuesdays and Fridays to deliver boxes and they always welcome more help! If this is something you are interested in, or if you would like to make a donation of any kind to Wyre Forest Food Bank, then get in contact via the ‘Contact Us’ page.
