THREE local organisations have worked together to improve services for the local community.
Westbury Foodbank, Westbury Shed and Westbury Community Project, all based at the Westbury Centre in Eden Vale Road, have reorganised their accommodation to allow the foodbank to move from upstairs onto the ground floor. The move coincides with the foodbank extending its opening hours, to now open on Saturday mornings as well as Monday and Thursday.
“The foodbank has been operating on the first floor at the centre which, as you can imagine, has meant a lot of extra work taking all the food upstairs,” said Linda Hallowell from Westbury Area Network (WAN) which runs the foodbank.
“Westbury Shed have very kindly agreed to move into a portable building alongside the centre to free up ground floor space. It will make a massive difference to us. Volunteers from the Foodbank, Westbury Shed and the Westbury Community Project all helped out on Saturday 29th October with a Big Move to set up the Shed in their new home and to move the foodbank downstairs.”
One of the town’s two community fridges is also housed at the centre and run by WAN.
Linda added, “The room freed up by the fridge will also mean this area can be rented out by Westbury Community Project to bring in much needed extra revenue. It’s been a lot of work and would not have been possible without the co-operation from all involved.
“It’s a real example of organisations working together to ensure services are available locally; it’s a real community effort.
Foodbank now open on Saturday mornings
“The foodbank is currently open 11am to 12.30pm Monday and Thursday and we have decided to open Saturday mornings, between 10am and 12 midday,” added Linda. “We have realised that a significant group of residents who are feeling financial pressure are not accessing foodbank support, and these are people who are in employment but low waged and cannot take time away from work during the week.
“One example is a single parent with take home pay of £1,000, with rent of £650 and two children.”
