Lonely This Christmas...Supermarket Food Bank Drive

I've been a long-term volunteer for Cardiff Food Bank and was very sad to have been unable to do anything with them in 2020 due to COVID restrictions.

In September this year, I was contacted by the Volunteer Coordinator of Cardiff Food Bank, Liz, who informed all the volunteers that the usual Christmas supermarket drives would be taking place again. I instantly signed up.

I was all set for a double shift at the big Tesco Culverhouse Cross in Cardiff. On the same site is also the Marks and Spencers where scenes in an early Gavin and Stacy Christmas Special were filmed, and also it is the home of a Decathlon outlet - the popular sports retailer.

In pre-COVID times the supermarket drives I would do would have around 6 volunteers, and there would be a different range of tasks to do. Because of COVID restrictions, now there would be just two volunteers and roles would be limited to stacking the donations in crates or handing out the leaflets.

The day before, Liz contacted me to say unfortunately both the volunteers who should have been joining me across my double shift had to self isolate. She asked if I would be happy to do the task on my own. Knowing how important the work all food banks do, there was no doubt in my mind that I would be there.

On the day I would alternate between stacking the donations in the crates, running across to the different donation spots in the store to collect the donations, and handing out the leaflets that the food bank prints especially to show the urgently needed donations.

Halfway through my four hours, a Tesco photographer arrived to take promotional photo material for Tesco and particularly wanted to involve the food bank, so you may end up seeing me somewhere in a Tesco magazine soon!

At 3 pm, the two volunteers for the final shift of the day arrived, and I messaged Liz to update her. By the end of the day, across the two other Tesco supermarkets also doing food bank drives that day, the Cardiff Food Bank had collected 4056kg of donations, with 1106.3kg coming from my store! This was 2.5 times more donations than Cardiff Food Bank had been able to collect last year during the pandemic, with no supermarket drives possible, and I felt really pleased to have been a part of this.