Putting items into bags for a client at the foodbank are Mandy Webb, left, and Dawn Dudhill. Picture by Laura Holme.
THE Isle of Wight Foodbank opened its first distribution centre this week.
Established by The Trussell Trust as part of its UK-wide food bank network, the Isle of Wight Foodbank was launched at Waitrose, East Cowes, earlier this month and on Tuesday opened its first distribution centre at St Andrew’s Christian Centre, Bridge Road, Cowes.
It is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 10am and 1pm.
The vision of Hannah King, who is co-ordinating the project, based at Somerton Business Park, is to open a food bank in every Island town.
Hannah said there had already been two successful collections at Waitrose and one in Morrisons in Newport, with others planned for August 12 at the Co-op in Newport, August 20 at Newport Sainsbury’s and August 27 at Waitrose.
On collection days, shoppers are handed a shopping list of non-perishable food and asked to buy one item for the cause.
The Isle of Wight Foodbank is there to provide emergency food and support to Isle of Wight people in crisis.
For people on low income, a sudden crisis, such as redundancy, delays in receiving benefits or even an unexpected bill, can mean them going hungry.
Front-line care professionals, such as doctors and social workers, give food bank vouchers to people in crisis.
The vouchers are then exchanged for food from a food bank distribution centre.
Reporter: martinn@iwcpmail.co.uk