Harvest Fine Foods pitches in to help vulnerable families

A wholesaler has been creating special Cooking at Home boxes to help vulnerable families this summer.

Harvest Fine Foods spent a lot of July creating donation boxes for Charity City Catering Southampton, which is active in the Country Range Group member’s local area.

The boxes provide vital nutrition to low-income and vulnerable families who may otherwise struggle during the school holidays. The boxes are then matched to recipe cards and backed up by online resources created by Charity City Catering too.

All of July’s recipes were low in energy – such as couscous salad – to acknowledge the rising cost of fuel in the UK, with Harvest Fine Foods donating more than 1,000 boxes in a single week.

Harest Fine Food’s Marketing Manager Julie Widdall also joined the charity to visit two primary schools in Southampton to see the operation first hand.

The wholesaler’s efforts are just one of a series of brilliant efforts wholesalers are involved with to help vulnerable families, with FareShare reporting that wholesalers had donated 570,000 school holidays meals in total across the nation this summer.

“The Cooking at Home project started in the first lockdown as a way to support families at that time, and has grown and developed since, thanks to successful grant funding and donations,” said a City Catering Southampton spokesperson.

“We are really proud to have been able to continue to support so many families – often 900 at a time, working closely with 30+ schools.

“We’re so grateful for the essential support of our partners, Harvest Fine Foods. It’s been a lot of hard work from many people and I’m delighted that this and the positive impact of it has been recognised by APSE and the APPG School Food network.”

Cooking at Home cost of living crisis Country Range Group donations Harvest Fine Foods holiday hunger Southampton