It has been a shorter working week because of the Bank Holiday and donations have been thin on the ground, although we had another large one from HSBC at Canary Wharf that Community Food Enterprise collected. Our contact at HSBC is actually working from home in Yorkshire but he is very committed to avoiding waste and is doing a great job in coordinating the food redistribution and recording the details of the donations for us.
Under normal circumstances there would be more surplus food available than we can deal with and the challenge would be to find enough charities to receive it. Now the situation has reversed and we eagerly await more shops and hospitality businesses re-opening so that we can get much-needed food to charities. The good news is that, when the lockdown started and businesses not in our network were contacting us to offload their stocks, many said they would like to donate on a regular basis when they re-opened. So we will be giving them a gentle reminder about this.
It seems that markets will be opening soon and perhaps we can take some cautious steps towards resuming our collections at Borough and the Real Food Market at King’s Cross. The safety of our volunteers is paramount, of course, so we will be relying on those who are happy to help and can avoid using public transport.
Dee is doing an amazing job for us as well as looking after little Theo and dealing with family life generally. Of course we haven’t seen each other for weeks but we are in touch every working day. We are so lucky to have her with us at this time. Correction: We are so lucky to have her with us at any time.
Also, we have been unable to visit dear Lotti, our inspirational co-founder, but we often speak on the phone. She is in good spirits and is keeping well. Even at 94 years of age she is still making a great contribution by talking to friends and family about Plan Zheroes and asking for their support. As a result, we have had some very generous donations over the last few weeks.