Supporting Pop-up pantries at half-term
Once again Samworth Brothers is supporting the Leicester City Council holiday food programme making sure children in the city on benefits-related free school meals won’t miss out over this half-term break. Samworth Brothers volunteers rolled up their sleeves to help set-up the five pop-up pantries at sites across the city, while the Samworth Brothers Community Champion team help to manage the sourcing of food supplies, plus distribution and delivery via the Samworth Brothers van fleet to the pantries.
The city council teamed up both with Samworth Brothers and surplus retailer The Company Shop to provide eligible families with fruit, vegetables, milk, bread and store cupboard essentials to ensure children have some breakfast, lunch and dinner options over half-term.
Families were then able to collect their food from one of five pop-up community pantries that will be set up at sites across the city – including local schools, a leisure centre and the King Power stadium.
Deputy city mayor Cllr Sarah Russell, said “I’m really pleased that we’ve opened up our half-term food ‘shops’ again this month, which will hopefully make life a little easier for many local families. I’d like to thank the team at Samworth Brothers and Company Shop for helping us support thousands of young people and their families across the city with this important half-term initiative, and I’d also like to thank the volunteers who will give up their time to help staff our five community pantries.”
Paula Gagin, Samworth Brothers Community Champion, said: “We’ve worked together across the group and with the Company Shop team to secure the huge amount of food required. It was quite a challenge, but we have some fantastic people who pulled out all the stops to make it happen. Thanks also to all the Samworth Brothers volunteers across the business who took timeout to support.