Bidfood helps children banish holiday hunger
Nationwide initiative sees wholesaler’s depots supporting families in need
Leading foodservice provider Bidfood had a busy July and August with the launch of its nationwide Action Against Holiday Hunger campaign. Nine of the wholesaler’s depots across the country donated food, drink and time to a variety of local holiday childcare projects to help make sure thousands of disadvantaged children didn’t go hungry over the six-week summer break.
Five of the Bidfood depots supported individual projects, including its Chepstow depot who worked with Swansea East MP Carolyn Harris to support the Swansea Kid’s Lunch Club, feeding more than 6,000 children.
Harris says: “Quite simply, a lot of families rely on free school meals during term time and are unable to afford the extra food needed for the six-week break; this is why I set up the Swansea Kid’s Lunch Club, to help support these families in need.
“This year will be the third summer of running the lunch club, having fed more than 6,000 children each year. To help run this scheme, we have had to rely on the kind donations from a number of suppliers, and Bidfood has been one of our biggest and most proactive supporters.”
Wakefield, Nottingham, Stowmarket and Worthing depots collaborated with leading food waste charity FareShare – one of Bidfood’s UK partners– to support more than 110 projects across the UK. Bidfood development chefs gave up their time to cook nutritious meals using surplus food donations and helped teach children and their families how to cook healthy meals on a budget.
Samantha Lai, Commercial Officer at FareShare, says: “We don’t believe it’s right that any child should go hungry, but that is the shocking reality for up to 3 million children in the UK this summer. By distributing healthy and nutritious surplus food donated by Bidfood we’re able to get greater quantities of food to the hundreds of amazing projects that are bridging the gap in provision over the summer holidays. Having Bidfood’s chefs offer their expertise and time to help cook at some of our projects has really helped maximise the potential of the food they receive.”
Talking about the campaign, Dr Andrew Kemp MBE, Group Sales and Marketing Director at Bidfood, says: “Myself and celebrated chef Michael Caines had the pleasure of preparing food in the premises of CaterED as part of our holiday hunger initiative.
“As the children began to arrive, I couldn’t believe how many there were, waiting patiently to be fed. This is holiday hunger, and this is happening everywhere across the UK. For my part, and I know for Michael Caines, this is such an important subject and we are merely scratching the surface when looking at the millions of children who go hungry every day during the school holidays.”
Action Against Holiday Hunger Bidfood Carolyn Harris MP Dr Andrew Kemp MBE FareShare Foodservice Michael Caines wholesaler
