A Bermondsey food bank has relaunched after moving from a local tenants’ and residents’ association hall to the Millwall community trust car park.
The Lions Food Hub, run by Lionesses goalkeeper Kelly Webster along with the Millwall Supporters Trust, had been running from the Manor and Rennie Estates’ TRA hall on Galleywall Road from January – but the space will now be hired out now that Covid restrictions are set to be lifted from this Monday, July 19.
Kelly had trouble finding a new place for the food bank, which provides a vital service to local people struggling during the pandemic. Sean Daly, who runs the Millwall community trust, invited Kelly to set up in the car park. Local charity the Food Education Trust donated £10,000 for a blue shipping container to house the new food bank.
Kelly hosted a launch event on Thursday July 8 to thank the people who helped set up the new food hub. It opened again for people to collect food on Friday. The food bank is now only running one food collection day per week but Kelly is looking to open on a second day soon. This is a side job for Kelly, whose main work is as a Royal Mail collections driver in Walworth.
The food hub currently only accepts donations of long-life food and other non-perishable goods like toiletries, but Kelly wants to expand to fresh food too.
“I want it to be a place where people can come and get nutritious food,” she said. “Getting recipe cards in, where people can maybe get more of an idea of how to feed themselves well would be good too.”
Kelly will be taking donations at Millwall’s home match days once the Championship season starts again in August. You can donate now at.bankuet.co.uk/lionsfoodhub.