August 2018 will see St Pauls Church Addlestone distributing free packed lunches to children for the third year. Last summer the team of volunteers recruited by church coffee shop HeBrews distributed over 250 lunches per week, reaching on average 50 children a day. This summer they hope to extend their reach further and make the service even more accessible to areas within the community where the need is greatest, to ensure that no child in Addlestone and the surrounding areas goes hungry and no family feels the burden of feeding their family through the long summer weeks.
As well as providing nourishment to the children of their community they are continuing to pursue their mission of reducing food waste whilst raising awareness of the negative environmental impact of food waste and excess food packaging.
The volunteers from within the church and the wider community will make up the packed lunches each day, consisting of a fresh sandwich or filled roll, a fruit juice box, a sweet treat and a piece of fresh fruit.
The team at HeBrews has carefully sourced their lunch supplies, using surplus food donated by Tesco in Addlestone via Fareshare, a national organisation that redistributes surplus food from industries. The local foodbank will also be donating extra ingredients where possible. The aim is to enlist the support of local businesses to either provide the certain shortfalls or the finances to top up supplies.
The team will again take these lunches out into the community with pick up points around the area, with the goal of making it accessible to all. Lunches will be offered to ALL children who want to collect a takeaway lunch regardless of circumstances with no advance booking required. In addition they plan to offer again Stay Play & Eat sessions on Fridays in August with activities such as face painting, crafting, animal petting etc supported by the Tesco Community Champion.
HeBrews are repeating their popular and successful ‘Sponsor a Local Child’ scheme inviting people who wish to donate funds for any top up purchases that are needed. It is estimated that £2.50 per week will cover top up purchases for one child and it’s not too late to join this scheme. Should you wish to donate please send cheques payable to Addlestone PCC to The Parish Office, School Lane, Addlestone
KT15 1TB clearly marked as a donation for Summer Lunches or visit their Just Giving page.