Peterborough Food Banks says ‘No Easter eggs just essentials’ to support people in need

Food banks across the country have urged kind-hearted people looking to donate in the run up to Easter not to hand over sweet treats but instead to focus on the vital food and essentials needed to create much-needed support packages for people in need at this time.

Peterborough MP Paul Bristow has urged residents to remember to donate to food banks during the pandemic.People looking to make a difference this Easter can make a donation to their local food bank by visiting their nearest Central England Co-op food store and dropping an item or two into special collection points.

Donations will be collected up from Central England Co-op stores and used to create food parcels, which contain around 11 items and will provide at least three days’ worth of meals for those in need.

Items needed for the food bank appeal include cereal, tinned food and fruit, tea bags, dried pasta, rice, long life milk, sugar, biscuits, fruit juice and squash, pasta sauce and instant coffee.

Food banks being supported by this appeal in Cambridgeshire include Peterborough Food bank, Yaxley Food bank and Cambridge City Food bank,

Juliet Welch, from Peterborough Food Bank, said: “We do not want any eggs as what we really need is long life milk, tinned meat, tinned fruit and any other tinned item.”

Chris Grant, from Yaxley Food Bank, said: “Our main need is for tinned fruit and tinned vegetables – especially tinned potatoes as we do not need anymore chocolate or eggs.”

A spokesperson for St Neots Food Bank said: “We have now limited time to get Easter eggs out so they are not our first priority.

“The things we most need are things are tinned tomatoes or any tinned veg, tinned meat and fish and long-life milk.”

This comes after kind-hearted communities donated over 30,000 items to Central England Co-op’s urgent food bank appeal in less than two weeks.

On average, food banks are seeing a 50% fall in donations coupled with a 100% rise in requests for food parcels with new enquiries coming from people who are self isolating, self employed and families who have children that would normally be getting free school meals.

People can keep up to date with how Central England Co-op is responding to the Coronavirus by visiting www.centralengland.coop/updates