Broxbourne-based Hearts Helping Herts donate 4,341 meals to those in need
A team of volunteers regularly collect food from Tesco stores across the county.
Pictured above, Nikita and Ellie collecting a food parcel (Credit: Hearts Helping Herts)
A Broxbourne-based food pantry has donated 4,341 meals to locals in need since launching in October last year.
Hearts Helping Herts, a charity initially set up to provide support groups for people with physical and mental health disabilities, now provides food parcels in response to the impact of Covid-19.
A team of five hardworking residents volunteer to regularly collect food from Tesco stores in Cheshunt, Cuffley, Hertford and Ware.
The charity has made 78 food collections so far, which, thanks to Tesco’s community food connection scheme, run in partnership with food charity FareShare, has provided a huge number of meals to the community – and helped to alleviate the worry for some people as to when and where their next meal will come from.
Oliviera Kagubare, one of the members of the local community who benefits from the meals provided, said: “We absolutely love the Food Pantry and its helped us a lot not having to worry where the next meal is going to come from.
“I’m thankful for the great work they do.”
Claire da Silva, head of community at Tesco, said: “We know that the Community Food Connection scheme is making a real difference to groups like Hearts Helping Herts, by providing a little bit of extra help in the shape of surplus food from our stores.
“This is the biggest supermarket food redistribution scheme in the UK, and we know there are more groups that could receive food for the work they carry out, so I would encourage any group that thinks it could benefit to contact FareShare, so we can help even more good causes.”
Lindsay Boswell, chief executive at FareShare, added: “We are incredibly thankful to Tesco for its continued support of FareShare.
“We work with a number of charities and community groups providing essential support to their local communities and receiving a steady stream of food helps them to feed those who need it most.”
For further information on Hearts Helping Herts click here.
Charities and community groups interested in signing up for regular food donations through Tesco can sign up at https://fareshare.org.uk/
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