Nantwich Post Office is helping to make a ‘special delivery’ to families in need after becoming a collection centre for the town Foodbank.
The Pepper Street landmark has collection boxes out for donations of non-perishable food items as part of its continued drive to support the Nantwich community.
Colleagues regularly make charity collections but it’s the first time the post office has become a designated collection centre for the Foodbank.
Post Office manager Austin Foster said: “The cost of living crisis continues to be an issue for so many local families and we wanted to do our bit.
“Christmas is often the time when people think of giving to the Foodbank but they are in need all year so we’ve started our collection in the summer.
“We get a big footfall in the post office, more than 3,000 people a week, boosted by the fact NatWest has closed and its customers are coming to us. We hope to do really well for the Foodbank.”
Nantwich Foodbank updates its ‘shopping list’ regularly and currently sought after are non-perishables such as tinned and packet soups, custard, long life milk and fruit juice and tinned meats, stew, curry and vegetables.
Ladies and gents toiletries are also being collected.
Already there’s been a good response with customers filling one box.
The Post Office has also installed a new community notice board where charities and organisations can advertise their events for free.
Helping to coordinate the effort is its latest recruit, 19-year-old Kate Riley, a former St Thomas More pupil who is working at the post office between university studies.
“I always loved going to post office as a child and remember looking up at the counter and watching the different processes. Everyone has been so welcoming, I’m loving it,” she said.
The community drive is working out so well Austin and his team have begun collecting for another charity – the Blue Cross in tribute to their many four-legged customers.
Kate added: “Local people regularly come in with their dogs. We see so many different breeds and get to know their names.
“They are happy to see us with tails wagging and most are very well behaved at waiting their turn in the queue!”
For more information on supporting Nantwich Foodbank go to nantwich.foodbank.org.uk
People need to use the food bank for many reasons. School holidays and Christmas time probably being the highest used time. I’ve used it before when I’ve had an unexpected expense like my washing machine broke and although I was working, couldn’t afford to fix it without sacrificing my food money or when I had cancer and couldn’t work it helped so I could use money to get to and from appointments instead. Food is a basic necessity, not a luxury and I’m not sure why you’re so against people in your community being able to eat if they’re going through a rough time
Dear Alice, Personally I much prefer to Donate what I can afford to UNICEF rather than the erroneous ‘Foodbank’ phenomenon fashioned to sustain folks who actually believe ‘The World Owes Them a Living’?…..
I can do nothing to help the situation of people in Gaza, Yemen, Ukraine, or anywhere around the world where terrible things are happening. But I can give some groceries to a food bank knowing that they will stop someone from going to bed hungry tonight, and at least I tried to make the amount of suffering in the world a tiny bit less. People end up skint in Britain for all sorts of reasons, often beyond their control.
With so many millions of poor souls on Planet Earth categorically suffering from devastating ‘Famine’ and ‘Malnutrition’ is a Foodbank opening in Nantwich Post Office entirely credible to alleviate a so called ‘Cost of Living Crisis’ which many hard-working folks interpret as simply inability to live within one’s means in a highly developed 1st World Country like UK 2025?….