Pop-up food bank to be held in Northampton this weekend for families struggling during pandemic

A pop-up food bank will be held in Northampton this weekend in the hope it can help families who are struggling during the pandemic.

The temporary aid will be hosted at Sikh place of worship - RBN, Gurdwara Sahib in Cromwell Street on Saturday (August 8).

Run entirely by volunteers, the food bank will offer families non-perishable goods such as tins and pasta, as well as sanitary products and toiletries.

One of the volunteers, Interjit Kaur Jutla, said: “We’ve been doing a lot during the pandemic like taking hot meals to the homeless in hotels and those who were shielding, as well as organising food boxes for primary schools.

“And now we’ve managed to secure a grant from the Martin Lewis coronavirus fund to help alleviate poverty.

“As it’s the summer holiday it’s harder to get food to those families but those families are still struggling so we thought we needed to reach them somehow.

“We’ve bought things that everyone needs as some people are choosing whether to eat or wash their clothes at the moment and that’s really sad.

“Anyone can come from any community and collect what they need and hopefully we will catch a few people who can’t get to other food banks because of the voucher system.”

The funding has helped to set up the pop-up food bank, but people have been donating too and the volunteer team has had a great response to their latest mission on social media.

The food bank will be open from 10am until 12pm on Saturday, everyone is welcome and all visitors will be asked to wear a face covering and adhere to social distancing guidelines.

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