In early April, Centrica and British Gas began working with the Trussell Trust to support food banks during the current coronavirus pandemic. As British Gas engineers and colleagues are currently only attending emergency and essential visits in these challenging times and a number of staff are on furlough, the company has encouraged its employees to volunteer with the Trussell Trust and offer support to food banks. You can find out more about the partnership here.
Since then, thousands of British Gas and Centrica employees have got involved and are making a real difference in their local communities by helping food banks deliver emergency supplies to people’s homes, collect and transport food donations, and sort food safely in food bank warehouses. Employees are also embracing this role at home, setting up home donation stations, buying donations for food banks when doing their own shopping, raising funds and spreading the word on social media about the work of the Trussell Trust.
Across the country, food banks have been getting in touch to let us know how they have benefitted from the partnership and to thank British Gas volunteers for their invaluable support.
“We’ve just started delivering so it’s early days, but the British Gas guys have been amazing. It’s such a massive help having them available to do this and we can’t thank them enough.”
Burngreave Foodbank
“We are very grateful for their help, and without them our deliveries would be a lot more time consuming and logistically challenging.”
Portsmouth Foodbank
“The engineers have been brilliant for us. I’ve been very impressed.”
Leicester South Foodbank
“We are extremely grateful to British Gas who are providing an outstanding service delivering food parcels to vulnerable and shielding residents as well as delivering stocks to our food bank centres.”
Stockport Foodbank
“The drivers have been confident, compassionate and happy to just get stuck in.”
Waterloo Foodbank
“The delivery went like clockwork and the volunteer from British Gas was a diamond.”
Shepway Foodbank
Being able to deliver food bank parcels to people’s homes is hugely important in ensuring everyone’s safety, but it’s a big change to the way food banks normally work. Furthermore, dealing with a huge increase in need, many food banks have faced real challenges in obtaining sufficient food donations and have relied on generous bulk supplies of food from Tesco which have been transported by British Gas employees up and down the country. The resilience and flexibility of food banks in the face of the current outbreak has been amazing, and the support of organisations like British Gas has been vital in helping food banks to adapt and innovate. We’re so grateful to British Gas and all those who have volunteered for their support, which is having a real impact on local communities.
