Church team near Warwick plays part in national charity effort to deliver more than a million meals to families throughout the pandemic

A church near Warwick has been taking part in a national charity effort to deliver more than a million meals to families throughout pandemic.

With so many in and around Warwick financially affected by Covid-19, St Michael’s Church in Budbrooke has been delivering food and well-being parcels to local families facing food and financial insecurity.

St Michael’s, also in collaboration with Packmores Centre, has been delivering the parcels as part of national children’s charity Transforming Lives for Good’s (TLG) Box of Hope project.

Through the project, TLG has equipped churches like St Michael’s with start-up funding, practical resources and other support to deliver the parcels to families across the UK.

TLG said it has now served in excess of one million meals through TLG Box of Hope since its inception at the beginning of the first lockdown last March – with St Michael’s in Budbrooke playing an important part in hitting this milestone.

Chris Blackham, who oversees TLG’s volunteer programmes including TLG Box of Hope, said: “We are so grateful to every single TLG volunteer who has been involved in responding to the additional needs of their community, while balancing the challenge of social distancing.

"One million meals is a huge number of children and families that could have gone hungry but instead received a healthy meal and well-being support.

"We are determined to make tackling child food poverty a central priority in the government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond.”

Val Brant, TLG Make Lunch Budbrooke coordinator, added, “It’s immensely encouraging how often our team members have been in the right place at the right time to meet the immediate need of particular families."

St Michael’s Budbrooke made sure they were among the many people and communities across the UK who stepped up to support those struggling to make ends meet.

Partnering with FareShare and Neighbourly.com enabled them to collect and distribute weekly free surplus food to up to 51 families.

They were also supported by Rotary, Lions, Foodbank, WCC, Tesco, Heart of England, Morrisons, Rowley’s Butchers, Warwick Street Kitchen and our fantastic local communities.

Other local churches were also involved, and an estimated 12,161 meal portions have been provided since March 2020.

St Michael’s Budbrooke usually runs a TLG Make Lunch club over the school holidays, providing a hot and healthy meal to families, as well as fun activities.

Due to restrictions the club was unable to run in the existing format, but the team knew that the families who attend the club would need the support more than ever.

So, the team worked hard, in keeping with current social distancing regulations, to put together and deliver the Box of Hope parcels.

They hope to be back running their weekly sessions in Chase Meadow Community Centre during the summer holidays 2021.