Waitrose in Menai Bridge is providing regular food parcels to homeless service users at Bangor hostel, Pendinas.
The supermarket has been collecting food, where packaging is damaged or the food is near the end of its shelf life and fit for eating. These are then given to the hostel, helping boost the much needed provisions available to service users.
Waitrose Menai Bridge branch manager, Gareth Hind, visited the North Wales Housing managed-hostel through the Business in the Community ‘Seeing is Believing’ initiative. This encourages businesses to get involved with their local community on key social and environmental issues. The shop are now supporting the hostel through a number of initiatives, the first being regular food donations.
Members of the Pendinas team pick up the pre-packed parcels and share these amongst service users using ingredients to encourage healthy eating.
Else Lyon, Hostel Manager at Pendinas said:
“Waitrose has been brilliant in the commitment they have shown to us. They provide us with a great food parcel at least once a week that contains a real mixed bag of quality produce and goods.”
“Not only does the food help plug a gap in funds but the different types of food that we received encourage service users to think about how they can use it and ways in which it can be cooked or prepared.”
Gareth Hind, Waitrose Menai Bridge Branch Manager said:
“It is great to be able to provide food parcels to support the hostel in Pendinas and the fantastic work that they do in our community. I really enjoyed visiting the hostel and meeting everyone there and we are looking forward to continuing our work with them in the future, including initiatives like helping the service users prepare for interviews and apply for jobs.”
