Staff and residents at a care home in Wisbech have been ‘overwhelmed’ by the success of their harvest festival collection for a local food bank and refuge.
Orchard House ran the collection throughout September after deciding to go ahead with it during the residents social planning meeting.
They chose for the donations to go to the local Wisbech Food Bank and Fenwick Refuge.
Throughout the month, resident’s family, friends and staff donated foods and other products.
At one point, a new container had to be found to contain the growing mountain of goods, which almost doubled with a further donation from RCH Care Homes.
Orchard House resident, Joyce Rowland, has been watching the collection grow over the last few weeks.
She asked her daughter to bring in donations on her behalf so she could help.
“I’ve really enjoyed meeting and thanking everyone for their kind donations to our local charities,” she said.
“It has been really rewarding boxing it all up to be collected.
On Friday October 1, the donations were collected by Dereck from Wisbech Food Bank and a representative of Fenwick Refuge.
When they arrived at the home, both were overwhelmed by the mountains of donations.
Dereck said: “It was very kind of them to think of us and we appreciate the support.”
The representative from Fenland Refuge said: “We cannot stress how much this will help and we’re so grateful for Orchard’s support during this time.”
During these difficult times the team at Orchards know that having a sense of community is really important; where one always looks out for their neighbours and offers help to those who needed it.
Lifestyle Lead, Miranda Robinson, spoke of the generosity.
“Two visiting paramedics made a donation of food and told us how wonderful it was that we were supporting our local community."
Sarah Watson, the home’s General Manager, expressed her pride and thanks for the donations.
“The response to our food drive has been incredible and such a success,” she said.
“Our local food bank and Fenland Refuge were overwhelmed by the generosity of our staff, residents and our company RCH.
“I’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone for all your help and support.”
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