WLC Joins Colleges Nationwide to Launch FE Foodbank Friday

West London College is launching a Just Giving web page to raise money for local foodbanks this Friday 1 May 2020 in Ealing and Hammersmith & Fulham. The college has joined the national FE Foodbank Friday campaign, which is seeing further education colleges around the country coming together to raise money for community food banks, as many foodbanks are experiencing a decline in donations at this challenging time and in great need of support.

Assistant Manager at the Hammersmith and Fulham Foodbank, Sian Gates said: “We are inundated with requests for food at the moment and have changed our operations to delivery to ensure all of our clients stay home and stay safe. In normal times we would distribute food to 225 people each week, each parcel lasting 3-4 days. At the moment we are delivering food to over 250 people each day!”

Here is a short video to show the scale of operations going on at the Hammersmith and Fulham Foodbank.

Sian continued: “The main item we need at the moment is more food. We have linked up with a couple of wholesalers so we can purchase food we need so cash donations are also very helpful at the moment. We are using up our stocks of food fast and would welcome any donations of long-life milk, long-life juice, tinned meat, such as corned beef and spam, tinned vegetables, tinned soup, pasta, tea, tinned rice pudding and tinned tomatoes. If you do your shopping in any Sainsbury’s, Waitrose or Tesco’s store in Hammersmith & Fulham you can donate these items to us via our permanent collection baskets located in each store. We are collecting these donations at least twice per week.”

West London College Deputy Principal, David Warnes, said: “We are living in very difficult times and it is important to do whatever we can to help one another. Food banks have been badly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, creating a serious problem for the many people who rely on them. We want to do our best at West London College to support our local communities, and we can make more impact by joining together with other colleges around the country to do this.”

To donate to the West London College FE Foodbank Friday fundraising campaign, and provide vital donations for Ealing and Hammersmith foodbanks, please click here.