MORE than 2,000 people across Coventry have received emergency food since the start of the pandemic.
Coventry City Council’s Community Resilience Team has been supporting organisations and partners offering food to the most vulnerable and those greatest in need.
The team has shared membership packs, completed funding applications, introduced food suppliers and linked them with local developers.
It helped form the Coventry Food Network which provides emergency parcels via the food hubs for those struggling financially or with isolation because of Covid-19.
The network has ensured all the social supermarkets now operate from the same model so people get the same service whichever one they attend.
The team also helped set up a Local Giving page to make them sustainable long-term so they can continue their valuable work.
Funding applications have been made for £668,000 with £390,745 so far awarded to enable charities to employ staff, buy equipment and storage facilities, food stocks and other essentials.
The World Food Hub – started by Carriers of Hope four weeks ago in Hillfields – is the latest to be helped by the team.
It offers culturally diverse foods for BME groups and has already fed 120 people, including children.
Coun David Welsh, Cabinet member for Housing and Communities, said the partnership working had been incredible with the community really coming together to support those most in need and the giving page would provide people with the chance to contribute.
Coun Faye Abbott, Chair of Feeding Coventry, said: “The Food Network needs all the support we can get to continue to help those people in need of our help. “By working together within the Coventry Food Network Operations Group we can get the best outcome for the communities that need our help and support.”
She urged businesses and residents to visit localgiving.org/charity/feeding-coventry/ to give what they could.
