As part of Troubador’s continued commitment to supporting the community, we have partnered with two charities in 2022: LOROS, who we support via fundraising, volunteering, and donations; and the Leicester South Food Bank, for whom we act as a food donation point – as well as giving our staff the opportunity to volunteer in the food bank itself.
Helping local people in crisis, the Leicester South Food Bank provides three days’ worth of nutritionally balanced emergency food and support to local people who are referred to them in crisis. They are part of a nationwide network of food banks, supported by The Trussell Trust, working to combat poverty and hunger across the UK.
On Wednesday 11th June, eight members of the Troubador team spent the day packing up emergency food parcels and learning about the incredible work that the Leicester South Food Bank does to support local people in crisis.
Bruce Harrison, Operational Manager for Leicester South, commended the Troubador team:
“Thank you to the staff at Troubador for coming on your corporate volunteering day. Your volunteers were astounded at the facts and figures we showed them and the myths we busted during the introduction and induction talk:
Size of Family No. Vouchers fulfilled – Total 9801
Couple – 1526 (15.57%)
Family – 1125 (11.48%)
Other – 484 (4.94%)
Single – 5127 (52.31%)
Single Parent –1539 (15.7%)
Total number of people fed – 20,298.
And that’s just Leicester South Food Bank, there are six other Trussell Trust food banks in the county and other independent food banks we support, so the numbers of people in the city and county will be over 100,000! Your generosity in giving up your time, means that struggling families and individuals will have food to put on their table, know that people want to help and above all build a community that cares about people who are struggling through a hard time.”
Andrea Johnson (Digital Production Controller) was particularly impressed with the additional support that the food bank offers to local people. “What was inspiring to me is how the food bank puts as much emphasis on supporting and helping their clients as well as providing emergency food. People who visit the food bank can get help from the Citizens Advice Bureau, meet with their local councillors and get debt advice from professionals. It’s not just about giving out food! There is also a big emphasis on building a community, with tea and coffee available to all people who come to collect a box,” comments Andrea.
“The biggest takeaway for me was that if everyone who could afford to added just one or two items to their weekly shop to donate (such as tinned food), then there wouldn’t be a shortage of food for the food banks to give to those people in need of help,” says Jack Wedgbury (Senior Cover Designer).
Stephanie Carr (Digital Marketing Controller) discovered that the biggest waster of food in the supply chain of food is the customer, and this is often due to us having too much choice, commenting that, “We could all look into alternatives to letting food go to waste, for example using companies like ‘Too Good to Go’.”
“The Leicester South Food Bank website offers a wealth of information, advice and support as well as displaying a regularly updated list of items that the food bank needs. On our volunteering day, we found that items like tinned beans were aplenty, but tinned meats and soups were in shorter supply, and these can be used to make multiple meals i.e. soup as pasta sauce, so please do check leicestersouth.foodbank.org.uk to see their latest list of urgently needed items,” says Philippa Iliffe (Assistant Marketing Manager).
Our offices in Market Harborough also act as a food donation point, so any authors visiting us for meetings or to drop off or collect stock are very welcome to bring along food items to donate to the food bank as well.