Care home signs up to help Hartlepool foodbank

Queens Meadow Care Home is partnering with St Aidan’s Church to collect items for the church’s foodbank.

The home is taking donations of canned and dried goods, biscuits, cereals and toiletries.

The items will also be used for the church’s regular soup kitchens for the area’s homeless and lonely, which feed 100 people a week.

Resident Betty Wilson is right behind the scheme.

“If we can help others, let’s do it,” she said.

Julie Armstrong, home manager at Queens Meadow Care Home, in Stockton Road, said: “When we heard about the St Aidan’s Church foodbank and soup kitchen we immediately wanted to get on board and generate donations.

“The initiative is helping so many homeless, low income, vulnerable and lonely people in the area and it is something we knew we had to get involved in.

“Community is so important to everyone at Queens Meadow Care Home and we are always looking for ways to create links, help others and get our residents involved in amazing initiatives, events and activities.”

A £30,000 fundraising campaign to build a kitrchen for the church was launched in March.

The numbers of people visiting the sessions every Thursday has grown from 15 when it first opened its doors last August to 100 now.

Reverend Gemma Sampson said: “At the moment we serve all of the food from one microwave, two kettles and three slow cookers our volunteers bring in.

“We wash up in washing up bowls filled from the kettles.

“A new kitchen will make things a lot easier and mean we can feed a lot more people.

“It means we will be able to be open more often and for longer. It will really make a significant difference to the whole town.

To make a donation to the fund go to https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/aidans-new-kitchen