With the school closing at short notice last week, Phyllis Street, our fantastic Catering Manager, and her dedicated staff made sure that none of the excess food went to waste.
Jack Clark and Anna Van Es from the Development team packed a whole school minibus with enough food to feed over 1,000 Emanuel pupils and staff for a few days. This amounted to mountains of cucumbers, baskets of leeks, fresh peppers, seasoned pork and much more being delivered to two local charities, St. Mark’s Foodbank and The Ace of Clubs.
St Mark’s Foodbank is a wonderful charity which provides nutritionally balanced emergency food and support to local people in crisis. The Ace of Clubs is a community that provides support for the homeless and vulnerable in the Clapham area. At their centre on St Alphonsus Road, they provide shelter, food, warmth, clothing, laundry and showers for around 100 people per day.
Both organisations were delighted to receive a substantial delivery of fresh ingredients to support the local community. This is the delighted response we received from St Mark’s Foodbank:
“This morning at Foodbank we had an unprecedented number of vouchers (40) representing families, couples and singles so as yet I don’t know the number we actually fed. The lovely thing was to be able to offer them bags full of fresh food including potatoes, broccoli , carrots and beans and then walk along the line asking if the guests would also like chillies, ginger, coriander or mint – people were so very grateful and it made the experience for all of us better than expected particularly as they were having to queue outside today [due to Covid-19]. But the box of single wrapped shortbread biscuits was a particular blessing, as we were able to hand these out immediately to those who were in the queue. We would normally offer tea or coffee and sometimes cake and sandwiches – it made the queue just a little more bearable.”
Another St Mark’s volunteer commented, ‘It really was a heart-warming experience – following a week of uncertainty and anxiety – to see the smile and encouragement on people’s faces as they picked up fresh fruit and veg. Thank you so much for being part of the Good News in our community.’
Anna Van Es (Development and Alumni Manager)