Southampton Comes Together…
Sanjay from Big Breakfast shares an amazing story of community pulling together to help those in need.
“Throughout this difficult time, I’ve been involved in getting food out to people across Southampton, in partnership with Love Southampton. I wanted to share with you what work we’ve been doing, and highlight the amazing collaboration happening across our city to help those in need.
We’d been thinking through how we could get more food out to people in need, when I was approached by Basics Bank. They asked if we would like 1000 ready-made frozen meals from a charity called UK Harvest. We certainly couldn’t say no to this, but I knew we didn’t have the freezer space to take that quantity.
However, help was at hand. I met a lady and her daughter who are involved with a variety of homeless work across the city. It turned out that she was the head of PR in her own company and said she would find the freezer space.
A couple of hours later, she came back to me explaining that she’d been offered freezer space by the owner of The Star Hotel. She had also been in touch with the manager of Awaaz FM community radio, who had put the message out asking for more freezer space. This then lead to Board in the city getting in touch, who offered more freezer space!
In a matter of hours, we had gained space for 500 meals from the help of various individuals. I couldn’t believe it!
On 5th May, UK Harvest delivered 500 meals which looked and smelled incredible! I later discovered that the food is being made by chefs from Bill’s and the Ivy Hotel Group. So top notch food!
Following this, Basics Bank offered more food for the next week if we wanted it. After our previous success, I couldn’t turn this down.
As if it couldn’t get any better, Harvest UK offered 1000 more meals and we were able to secure more freezer space from Iceland in Portswood. We asked if they could store 2000 and they agreed, so Harvest UK are delivering 2000 meals directly to Iceland to then be delivered to those in need.
In the space of one week, we have received 2500 meals with help from our local community. I’d spoken to the Manager of 2 Saints Day Centre, who will be taking 100 meals to feed residents at the centre. An additional 100 meals will go out directly to families and individuals via the fantastic volunteer delivery drivers. There is a clear need in this current climate to feed a large amount of people from a variety of backgrounds; People who are homeless, vulnerable, single parent families, refugees and people with little money.
Throughout this time I’ve enjoyed working closely with different individuals, companies and organisations in our community, whom I’d had no engagement with previously, and I’ve been amazed at how many have been able happy to pitch in and help so quickly.
This experience has highlighted to me the many people in our community who clearly need help, and those that are willing to help in any way they can to achieve this. I’ve seen an astounding amount of love and compassion within the city, across generations and cultures, and none of this could happen without that team of wonderful people.”
To hear more about the work that’s being done across the city - to volunteer or request help, visit our homepage.
To make a donation to our work, visit our donate page.