Foodbank privileged by students to help those in need

Pupils from Soham Village College and King’s Ely have been helping at Ely Foodbank’s warehouse in Chettisham every week since November, packing items ready to be donated.

Cathy Wright, director at Ely Foodbank, said: "I see it as a privilege to have had this opportunity with the students.”

The sessions helped students towards completing their bronze and silver Duke of Edinburgh (DoE) awards after Ely Foodbank relaunched its partnership with the DoE programme ahead of Christmas.

Students volunteered for five months at Ely Foodbank as part of their Duke of Edinburgh awards. (Image: Ely Foodbank)

Sessions for bronze award students continued for around 13 hours and 26 hours for those working towards the silver award.

To mark the end of the programme, the group spent the final session distributing food parcels to clients at the Countess Free Church in Ely on April 12.

“I thank them for persevering in often less than comfortable surroundings and for helping Ely Foodbank get the much-needed parcels out each week,” said Ms Wright.

“We have a new group starting on April 20 and I am looking forward to meeting them and helping them to understand the work we do.”

If you would like to donate to your local foodbank, you can currently shop and drop at the following locations:

• Ely: Waitrose, Tesco, Sainsbury’s

• Sutton: One Stop, Co-Op

• Chatteris: BP Garage

• Soham: Co-Op, St Andrew's Church

• Burwell/Isleham/Fordham: Co-Op

• Cottenham: Co-Op, All Saints Church

• March: Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Co-Op, Iceland, QD

• Haddenham: Holy Trinity Church (11-1pm Mondays only)

Items bought from different supermarkets must be marked as ‘private donation’.

For more details on the foodbank and getting a foodbank voucher, call 01353 468626 or email: info@ely.foodbank.org.uk.