YOUTH

Foodbank Donation Week in Wendover

During this COVID-19 Pandemic the amount of people accessing the foodbank has increased in our local area. The Chiltern Foodbank, of which Wendover Foodbank is a part, has seen a significant increase in demand. Key partners in the community including Wendover Youth Centre, Wendover Parish Council, Churches Together in Wendover and the Wendover Foodbank worked together to organise the first Foodbank Donation Week in Wendover to address the need for more food donations. The foodbank donation week took place from 25-31 May 2020 and involved the whole community - from volunteers, young people and street wardens collecting food donations from doorsteps to people dropping food donations off at Budgens and the Youth Centre.

During the week young people and volunteers helped to pack the donated food into crates which were then taken to the Chiltern Foodbank in Chesham. Our local MP Rob Butler visited the Youth Centre to find out more about the amazing generoosity and efforts of the community and assisted our volunteers in packing the food into crates.

Packers at the Youth Centre

Over the week 56 crates of food weighing an amazing 683kg was donated by the community!!! According to the Chiltern Foodbank this will be enough to feed 100 people in the system for 3 days. This is a truly fantastic effort, so thank you to everyone to donated food.

A couple of highlights from the week included: 11-Year-old Lillah Alderson created a sign outside her house and encouraged neighbours on her street to donate food to a trolley on her doorstep. Over the whole week she brought up 3 trolleys full of food and helped in the packing of the food.

Will Heaton came up with the idea of a marathon challenge. He ran a mile then challenged his friends and family to run a mile until all the miles added up to reach the marathon distance of 26 miles. From this he raised £26.20 which he then used to buy food to donate to the foodbank. A video showing the efforts of Will and his friends and family accompanies this article at www.wendovernews.co.uk/news/ wyc-july-2020.

It was great to see these young people put their time into coming up with ways to be a part of the week and help their community. A big thank you to them for their fantastic efforts throughout the week.

Lastly, we would like to thank everyone who has been involved and contributed to the foodbank donation week. It has been amazing to see the whole community come together to help those who are in need! It is a pleasure to be part of such a generous and caring community. We are planning on organising another foodbank donation week later in the year to continue to support the existing need for food donations.