A community larder is set to celebrate ten years of service and helping thousands of people.
Holbeach Community Larder and Café provided food parcels for more than 20,000 people, £30,000 in food vouchers and cooked and served more than 22,000 two-course meals.
It was started on September 13, 2013, following a scoping exercise in which it was decided that the town had a need for a food bank.
“During our first session just one client turned up for a food parcel and another for the cooked meal,” said the chairman of trustees, Jane Francis. “This started to grow and more and more people started to use the service and the café.
“In our first year, we provided food parcels for about 200 clients, but by the second year the numbers had doubled.
“The café soon became a huge success with Sue Dunne as cook and numbers went up to 30 or 40 every week.
“The demand for both services continued to grow year on year and rocketed during the pandemic.
“The food bank kept going during lockdown because our wonderful volunteers continued to help and we delivered food parcels to those who needed them.”
The café provides food parcels for more then 2,000 people every year and distributes the government funded aid, through food vouchers to free school meal families in the school.
Where it can, it also helps many families by providing financial support to pay gas and electricity bills in the winter months.
The café continues to provide 40 home-cooked meals every week, of which a proportion are delivered to people who are housebound.
The food bank is a registered charity and the café is registered as a Community Interest Company (CIC). The two organisations are separate but work closely and share many of the same roughly 30 volunteers.
Six are trustees of the charity with directors of the CIC including three of the original members who helped to set up the organisations, with the now retired Revd Rosamund Seal.
They are Chris Penney, Declan Noble and Jane.
“I have to mention some of our food bank managers Wanda Adams-Stevens and before that Gill Rogers who have given so much of their time to ensure people in our community do not go without food.
“None of this would have been possible without the help of all our sponsors and we are truly grateful to everyone who has contributed to our organisations over the past decade.
“We’ve celebration on September 16 is a thank- you to all those who have contributed in any way.”
The afternoon tea is for volunteers old and new along with organisations that have contributed to its success.
It takes place at the Reading Rooms in Church Street, Holbeach from 2pm to 4pm.
