After being inspired by Marcus Rashford’s amazing efforts to help families have access to meals over the school holidays, our colleagues have been helping out at our local foodbank. Earlier this week, Tom Horton, Managing Director of The Insurance Surgery and two members of our marketing team took a few hours out of their day to volunteer at the local foodbank. The company had donated over 100 meals and will continue to donate and work with Silklife throughout December.

Silklife Foodbank

Over the first lockdown Silklife Foodbank has provided over 16,000 meals to residents in need across the Borough of Macclesfield, which goes to show the impact of the pandemic, and how truly important their work has been throughout the year. This is especially prominent in the current pandemic with many people losing their jobs or struggling to find employment, or even due to ill health. On average, the foodbank helps around 152 households per month – that includes families, couples and singles; however over the Christmas period this number increases and this year the number may be even higher than usual.

Supporting our Community

The Insurance Surgery has decided to support Silklife Foodbank as much as possible during December, with either volunteers or food donations throughout the month to ensure that no one is going hungry over the Christmas period. The foodbank is primarily a volunteer-run organisation, and therefore volunteers are crucial to keep the foodbank operational. Unfortunately, due to social distancing restrictions as a result of the pandemic, Dan has had to restrict the amount of volunteers he has on the floor at one time – this means that there is added pressure on the volunteers. Luckily, Dan is able to allow 2 of our colleagues to volunteer every Tuesday in December, and we are delighted to be able to help!

Personal Experience at the foodbank

We were lucky enough to be one of the first groups to volunteer on Tuesday 1^st December, and it was an eye-opening experience. We had no idea how much work volunteers and staff must complete throughout the day. They must sort, date and organise every item that is donated to ensure that no food is misplaced or out of date. Dan Blackman, the general manager of Silklife, estimated that they need around 3 tons of food to cover them over the Christmas period, and in just one of their charity donations they collected a total of 3.5 tons of food from around 500 donators – so you can see how much food they need to sort and store. They have also been kindly donated the use of a garage to store excess food as they are running out of space in their current location.

How can you help throughout December?

Unfortunately, Dan cannot take on any more volunteers over the Christmas period due to Covid-19 restrictions. However, he can accept donations, either food or monetary donations are much appreciated. If you would like to find out more about Silklife Foodbank then visit their Facebook page or if you would like to find your local foodbank, you can use the Trussell Trust find a food bank page.