Politicians and staff at a Flintshire office who clubbed together to help Flintshire Foodbank

Politicians and staff at a Flintshire office who clubbed together to help Flintshire Foodbank are urging other workplaces to do the same.

Flintshire Foodbank recently made an appeal for donations in the press after Connah’s Quay foodbank ran out of items including UHT milk, rice pudding and custard.

Carl Sargeant, AM for Alyn and Deeside, backed the appeal in newspapers, on Twitter and with posters in his Connah’s Quay office urging people to donate food.

Now Carl, along with Mark Tami MP and all the staff at their office have donated three boxes of food and toiletries to the food bank.

Flintshire Foodbank project officer Sue Leake said:

“We’ve had a lot of donations since the article and tweets, so it’s changed our situation but we need to keep it coming,” she said.
“We give food to roughly 500 people a month and that need hasn’t dropped at all. We’re really grateful for people’s generosity.
“The campaign has been really good in bringing it back to people’s attention, but it’s an on-going problem, it’s not going to be going away any time soon.”

Flintshire Foodbank runs foodbanks in Connah’s Quay, Saltney, Buckley, Flint, Holywell and Mold.

Carl Sargeant said:

“I understand that people may feel they can’t donate because times are tough. It is a disgrace that people should need foodbanks in a country with the joint fifth largest economy in the world.
“The reality is that benefit changes and delays together with low income under the Conservative Government’s welfare reform are why almost half the people who turn to foodbanks to feed their families have to do so.
“It wasn’t hard for everyone in our office to put in £1-£4 each to enable us to contribute three boxes to the foodbank, and I would urge anyone who can afford it to do the same.
“I’d also like to take the opportunity of Volunteers Week to draw attention to the wonderful work done by the 60 volunteers working across Flintshire’s six foodbanks and the three volunteer drivers who collect donations. They are all doing a fantastic job making sure no one goes hungry in Flintshire.”

Sue added:

“We’re really grateful for this donation from Carl Sargeant’s office. Flintshire County Council and Moneysupermarket have collection bins at their offices and I would urge any large workplaces to do this too and our volunteer driver can collect when the bin is full. It’s a great way of getting on-going support.”

Donations can be taken to the Mold foodbank on Wrexham Street Tuesday and Friday 10am-2pm. The following supermarkets also accept donations: Tesco Mold, Broughton and Holywell, Sainsbury’s Flint, Asda and Queensferry and Co-operative Deeside.
Carl’s office at 70 High Street Connah’s Quay will continue to accept donations Monday-Friday 10am-4pm, and large donations can be collected. For further information contact Flintshire Foodbank on 01352 755385.