Corps News

6 Armoured Close Support Battalion Join Forces with Local Supermarket to Support Andover Food Bank

Scribe: Carolyn Battey, Unit Welfare Officer

Soldiers from 6 Armoured Close Support Battalion REME joined forces with a local supermarket to support the Andover Food Bank. They set up The local supermarket staff generously donated their Christmas event funds, meaning £1400 of food was given to create Christmas food hampers for local collection points around Tidworth Camp as well as within the local store, to raise awareness of the organisation and encourage the local community (both military and civilian) to support this worthy cause.

This was the brain-child of Craftsman Chris Naylor and Craftsman Michael Chapman, both members of the Technical Quartermaster’s Department. After researching local charities, the Soldiers decided to launch a ‘Winter Food Drive’, running from December 2020 into January 2021 to support the local community.

Craftsman Naylor admitted that it was definitely a team effort: “With support from my department, we started to set up donation points at several locations on the military camp in Tidworth, to increase awareness and encourage donations from the military community.” families in need. Under the direction of Craftsman Naylor, the funds and food donations totalling 2295kg to date, have been transported to the Andover Food Bank, where Soldiers were invited behind the scenes to see how the operation works. “It has been a real eye opener to talk to people involved in the great work this local charity provides, to see the generosity of everyday people and, more importantly, speak to people who have been affected by food poverty this year in these hard times.” Craftsman Naylor.