Shrewsbury Food Hub benefits from college donations

Boxes of surplus food and toiletries from the empty bedrooms of a Shropshire college have been distributed to Shrewsbury Food Hub.

With Acton Burnell's Concord College students now studying remotely from home, a small group of staff have stepped in and packed the contents of 497 bedrooms in three weeks using 3,000 boxes and hundreds of suitcases.

As the college was unable to store any items of food, it was decided to donate it all to the Shrewsbury Food Hub which is supporting Shrewsbury Food Bank and The Prince Rupert Hotel, currently accommodating the homeless.

Concord’s pastoral team manager Julia Kerslake said: “As boarding students were encouraged to travel home while flights were still available, many left in such a hurry that there was no time to pack all their belongings.

“Accommodation was cleared and cleaned by domestic and pastoral teams and as a result Concord has been able to deliver 60 boxes of surplus food and toiletries.

“The college is very pleased we can help our local community in this small way.

"We would also encourage other schools and businesses to do the same where possible.”

Shrewsbury Food Hub co-ordinator Pippa Lobban said: “The kindness of the public, including Concord College, has been great.

"Being an international school, there is food from all around the world in Concord’s donation.

“Some of this food I had never seen nor heard of before.

“During lockdown many of the community projects and clubs have unfortunately had to close down or stop running, but we are still supporting around 25 that continue to be active, including the Shrewsbury Food Bank and The Ark.

“Since the ongoing effects of Covid-19, volunteers naturally had to drop from around 60 to 20 due to people’s safety and wellbeing as well as others wanting to isolate.

“However, we have re-designed how we operate to ensure maximum safety and have trained up new volunteers and small groups to work in family units to minimise contact with anyone else.

“Our volunteers currently collect surplus food from supermarkets, restaurants and local businesses every day.

"They then deliver it to the community groups.”