A ‘meet the chair’ event organised for Corby Foodbank volunteers has been hailed as a great success.
Held at St Peter and St Andrew’s Church in Beanfield Avenue where the foodbank is based, the event provided the foodbank’s volunteers the opportunity to come together and meet its current chairperson Sue Kennedy face-to-face and ask any questions about her role.
Sue, a former child protection social worker, was appointed as chair of the foodbank – which distributes three-day emergency, non-perishable food parcels to local people in food crisis – at the end of last year and was keen to gather all foodbank volunteers together.
“The event was a great chance to meet all of the volunteers – including those based at the church and the foodbank’s warehouse – to talk about how they see the future and where we go next with our plans,” said Sue.
“With the day-to-day running of the foodbank, it can often be difficult to know everyone, so this has been a great opportunity to bring people together, put faces to names and talk about where we go next with our strategy.”
The volunteers at Corby Foodbank are all keen to give up their time to help give back to society and support Corby Foodbank, with each having their own personal reasons for doing so.
Louise Neal is relatively new to volunteering at the foodbank, having started giving her support in March this year. However, it has been on her wish list for some time. “I’ve wanted to volunteer at the foodbank since Covid,” explains Louise. “However, I was working in care so that wasn’t possible due to restrictions in place at the time. But I’m really happy to be helping out now.
“It’s lovely to be able to come to events like this to meet all the other volunteers and to of course meet and chat with Sue.”
For over ten years volunteer Donna Sumpter has given up her free time to help the charity. She is the first person that local people meet when visiting the foodbank and says it’s the people that come through the foodbank’s doors that keeps her going: “I love it! It’s great to be able to chat to people and make them feel welcome.
“I think it’s because I’ve been there and I can see myself in their position,” she said. “I always say if you’re hungry and you’ve got money it doesn’t matter, but if you’ve got no money, it really does matter. There’s no shame in asking for help.”
For more information about Corby Foodbank visit www.corby.foodbank.org.uk