What a fantastic month!

When I last blogged, I mentioned that I was going to see some racking that Sainsbury's were donating to us. Since then the racking - which turned out to be fantastic supermarket shelving - has been delivered. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the size of the truck that delivered it! Altogether we have 16 pallets of racking which will be assembled early March with our hope to have the warehouse up and running by early April.

This month has also seen a wonderful joint sponsorship by Mortgage Rescue Network (Part of the Rapid Property Group) and Mercedes-Benz. This relationship will provide the funding and ongoing servicing / maintenance for a 57 plate Mercedes Sprinter van which will enable us to start our Mobile Food Bank. All being well we will take delivery of the vehicle on 1st March - watch this space for further updates.

I certainly hope that February is as exciting!

Racking

I am so excited! At the end of last year Sainsbury's very kindly offered to help us by donating some racking that we can use in our warehouse and said that it would be available in the middle of January.

Well that time has now come - and tomorrow I am heading up the motorway to sunny Longridge (although it is probably more like snowy Longridge!) to see what they have available and to decide what we need.

The racking is absolutely essential to us as once it is in place, we can then move our storage and packing operation to the warehouse which will be fantastic!

Here's hoping that there's no more snow tonight and a clear run up the M6!

A Belated Happy New Year!

Where has the time gone! I just can't believe that it is 11th January already!

The Food Bank certainly had a very busy December with many local companies, schools, Churches and individuals holding special Christmas food collections resulting in a wonderful influx of stock. Many thanks to all those who contributed.

The Food Bank also managed to get 98 Christmas Hampers sponsored which made a massive difference to those families who received one.

By the end of 2009 The Food Bank had given out 3104 food parcels to local people. Sadly the need in our city continues to rise and 2010 has started out very busy.

The cold weather has put an added strain on everyone. Thankfully, despite all the snow, we have been able to open on each of our serving days which is entirely down to the willingness of our fantastic team of volunteers.

We have a really exicting year ahead of us with the prosepct of getting our warehouse up and running and also starting a mobile food bank - so watch this space for further updates.

Stay warm and safe