Volunteers from First Bus are lending a helping hand and some heavy lifting to Rochdale Foodbank this month as the charity gears up for expansion of its service and support to the community.
Team members from the bus operator have spent a week at the charity’s premises on Market Place at the rear of Rochdale shopping centre transforming the warehousing space to create a new Pantry area which will provide other services as well as ambient, chilled and frozen food for a low membership fee.
Staff and volunteers at the foodbank are also enjoying a larger rest area for breaks and meetings with the former staffroom altered to provide more storage of donated goods.
Kevin Mullin, Social Value Manager at First Bus, said: “We met with the foodbank team as we were preparing to begin the start of our depot in Rochdale and they told us about the plans to re-organise the existing space for more services. As newcomers it was an ideal opportunity for us to get involved in the community.
“Witnessing the impact this has in supporting the daily lives of local people has been very rewarding.”
First Bus volunteers will also be supporting Rochdale Foodbank collections this week (Thursday 23/Friday 24 May) by encouraging customers at the Asda store to purchase and donate much-needed items while shopping for their own homes and families.
Colleagues at the Rochdale depot on Corporation Street have also been making donations – filling a box with 26kgs of food items in the past week.
Iain Wight, Development Manager at Rochdale Foodbank, said: “Rochdale Foodbank only exists because of the goodwill of many people in the community, from the many hundreds of personal food donations every week, to the brilliant volunteer teams, our Referral Partners and our corporate supporters.
