Needy families in Hull will be able to tuck into turkey for Christmas after businesses in the city joined forces to support Hull Foodbank.
Fresh turkey provided by the Mercure Hull Royal Hotel will be kept in perfect condition in a fridge refrigeration supplied by Heron Foods (should this be Heron Frozen Foods?) after the businesses were brought together by HullBID acted as the conduit to bring together the two city centre businesses.
The food will be distributed by Hull Foodbank on Christmas Eve to people from the local area who are struggling to feed themselves and their families.
Sarah Sidwell, Project Manager at Hull Foodbank, said the businesses stepped in to help after she spoke of her plans for Christmas to Luc Perquin, General Manager of the Mercure Hull Royal Hotel and a Hull Foodbank supporter.
Sarah said: “I told Luc we would be open on Christmas Eve and would be providing people with food for a Christmas dinner including tinned turkey. Luc said he would donate fresh turkey and when I explained we would not be able to store it, he went off to find a fridge.”
Luc appealed for help when he met fellow members of the HullBID board and Tim Powell, a BID Board member and a Partner at Scotts Property, then contacted former colleague Jonathan Laverack, now the Estates Director at Heron Foods.
Jonathan said: “As soon as we heard about this we were happy to help. We are doing a lot of work opening new shops and upgrading others and we always have equipment in storage so we provided one of our double-door commercial fridges for Hull Foodbank to use.”
Luc explained: “When I heard Hull Foodbank was going to give people tinned turkey I wanted to see if we could do better than that. We will do around 4,000 Christmas dinners at the hotel during December. We only serve turkey breast and it doesn’t make a lot of difference to us to order some extra.
“Refrigeration was the problem but thanks to Tim and Jonathan we were able to sort it out. Everything was agreed very quickly and in fact I didn’t even need to speak to Jonathan – he made it happen with a couple of emails!”
The chef at the Mercure Hull Royal Hotel will portion and pack the turkey breasts as required for families and individuals, and they will be delivered to Hull Foodbank along with cooking instructions and food hygiene documentation ready for distribution on Christmas Eve.
Sarah said: “We have managed to get Christmas puddings, mince pies, selection boxes and other festive treats, but without the help of the businesses there is no way we would have been able to give people fresh turkey so we’re very grateful.
“It is difficult to put a figure on how many clients we will have at Hull Foodbank because they are all referred to us by such professionals as doctors, social workers and family support projects, but we have been receiving from 25 to 30 referrals every day.
“Since April we have had around 1,700 referrals and helped around 3,000 people. From April 2012 to April 2013 we helped 2,200 people.
“People come to us for all sorts of reasons but some of the main ones are homelessness, debt and low income and it is awful that the numbers are increasing.
“Our Christmas message is to ask people to check on their neighbours at Christmas because it is not always the obvious people who need help. It might be a single mum and her three children who are struggling on Christmas Day.
“Gestures like this from the business community can really make a difference to our clients at Christmas and other times of the year and if more businesses would like to know how they can help they should contact us at corporate@hull.foodbank.org.uk”
Pictured: Sarah White and John MacDonald from the Mercure Hull Royal Hotel.
