Food Parcel Distribution in Aberdeen By Abhishek Goswami from Aberdeen Lions Club - Guest Blog
At Aberdeen & Westhill branch in 105N, we are working closely with Community Food Initiative North East (CFINE), an Aberdeen-based charity involved in providing emergency food parcels for several years to individuals in serious need. Whenever someone requests a food parcel, the charity carry out a brief, informal assessment of their needs and provide a food parcel containing tinned and non-perishable food to last several meals.
At the onset of the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, rising demand for food parcels was driven not only by individuals facing financial difficulties but also ones who were shielding in isolation due to underlying health conditions. While the situation improved slightly in the summer of 2021, advent of the Omicron variant created a scenario where we found ourselves back to a situation not dissimilar to that in 2020 and demand started going up. Reaching out to CFINE in December 2021, we got an immediate response seeking our help in collection and distribution of food parcels around the city as they were short of drivers.
Immediately, a few members of our team started the endeavour by creating a rota of volunteers available to drive and distribute parcels around the city and turning up every week at their door ready to work. With the list provided to us and a bit of pre-planning, it doesn’t take more than 2-3 hours of time (per week) for a volunteer to distribute food items to all recipients on the list.
That rota has previously been in operation continuously between July 2020 and April 2021, distributing roughly 460 crates of food around the city. Since the re-start in December 2021, we have already distributed food items to around 150 households in and around Aberdeen. We pledge to continue this rewarding endeavour until the point when demand goes down to a manageable level or there is a surplus of willing volunteers to fill the rota. Anyone keen to get involved with Aberdeen Lions Club, please reach out to us at info@aberdeenlionsclub.org.uk OR Facebook. And if you would like to get involved in volunteer driving for CFINE please Contact Us and put your enquiry as volunteer driver and your availability. Thank you.
