Food Festival donation event for Nantwich Foodbank hailed huge success

A Nantwich Food Festival “Advent” donation event in aid of the town’s Foodbank has been hailed a major success after filling NINE vans full of food and gifts

Scores of residents dropped by throughout the day at Brine Leas School on Saturday with their generous donations, despite the terrible weather.

A team of 11 Festival volunteers organised the collection and filled an impressive nine van loads of food and gifts for those local families in need.

Donations of clothes for Motherwell also exceeded expectations.

“There was so much good quality clothing donated that it barely fit into the car of the Motherwell representative who came to collect it!” said a Festival spokeswoman.

The event was attended by Crewe & Nantwich MP Kieran Mullen MP and Nantwich Mayor Cllr Pam Kirkham, and her consort – daughter Caroline.

Cllr Kirkham directed the traffic, helped unload donations, sorted donations by food and gift types and loaded up the food bank vehicle.

Then came the task of transporting everything to the Nantwich Foodbank to prepare for allocation to individual families.

Emily Vaughan, Foodbank spokesperson, said: “We are in shock up here in the storeroom.

“What a day! The generosity of the people of Nantwich and local villages is truly heartwarming.

“We would just like to say an enormous thank you to you and your team of Festival volunteers.

“Today has been a success beyond anything we could have dreamt of, and your team collecting and sorting has made a huge difference to us in the storeroom.

“We finally finished unloading the vans and getting all donations into the dry at around 3pm.”

Maureen Coulter, on behalf of the Food Festival team, added: “We were delighted with the success of the day, and wish to thank all those who donated produce, not forgetting local media and radio stations for their help in publicising this event.

“Without their support we are confident that this would not have been the great success that it was.

“We are delighted that we could collectively support other local organisations, and hope that Nantwich Foodbank and Motherwell clients will have a happier Christmas.”