Food bank chief thanks corporate sponsors for continued support
The chief of a community food bank has spoken about the importance of donations from corporate sponsors.
Jen Coleman, who is CEO of the Black Country Food Bank in Brierley Hill, said the help was valuable to help charities like hers to continue running and keep helping their communities.
Ms Coleman was speaking following the donation of £2,500 by Brutons Pharmacy, following a charity raffle by staff from the company, with the food bank alongside Acorns Children's Hospice in receiving a donation.
She said she hadn't been aware of the donation until someone from Brutons emailed her to let her know about it, but said she was grateful for the kind gift.
She said: "Corporate sponsors are incredibly important to Black Country Food Bank and other charities across the country because the money that's raised is a big part of the encouragement that charities feel to keep moving forward with their goal and their vision.
"Any sort of collaboration between corporates and the voluntary sector is really valued and we're really grateful that they chose to support us in the work that we do."
Ms Coleman said the subject of food poverty was one which was continuing to roll on and said that while it was worse than ever, the food bank was still in a place to be able to help where it could thanks to financial and physical donations.
She said: "Here in the community, the corporate groups have been supporting us with physical donations as well and the amount of food and toiletries we have is really encouraging and helps us to keep pushing forward and fighting to help people.
"Black Country Food Bank is very fortunate because we've been here for a long time and we have some great supporters who keep coming back and continue to support us through thick and thin, even with the situation is challenging for them personally.
"We are doing fine at the moment and had a really good Christmas and New Year with donations and it means that we can push forward all the time.
"There's never a moment we can rest on our laurels, of course, and we have to keep encouraging donations as we're in a serious cost of living crisis, but the donations are really helpful and really vital to our cause."
