Employees from Bidfood’s Business Support Centre in Slough volunteering at Langley Hall Primary Academy
Bidfood, one of the UK’s leading foodservice providers, has recently launched a nation-wide campaign in line with Volunteers’ Week (1st-7th June 2018). The initiative saw over 150 employees across the UK involved in different projects on behalf of the business, including widespread litter picks, a large beach clean in Manchester, volunteering at local schools and with the elderly, as well as helping out at various foodbanks. Seven of Bidfood’s 16 depots, including Basingstoke, Wakefield and Salisbury, collaborated with FareShare, the UK's largest charity fighting hunger and food waste, and one of Bidfood’s UK partners. Volunteering activities included assisting their drivers with deliveries, sorting products, organising the depot and picking food orders to aid the process and help even more people in need. The Bidfood own brand team also supported one of the volunteering initiatives in Slough (where the company is headquartered) at ‘Recycled Teenagers’, a local community lunchtime group for over 60’s. The team donated, prepared and served a full lunch with food and drink from Bidfood’s own brand range. Speaking about the initiative, Norman Wemyss, COO at Bidfood said: “We are consistently working on ways to continue to give our national company a truly local feel, which is why giving back to each of our sites’ local communities is so important. “Our depots take part in worthy local causes throughout the year and we are delighted to be running a campaign in line with Volunteers’ Week, encouraging all of our teams across the UK to reach out to local businesses, charities and councils to spend a few hours offering a helping hand. This is a fantastic initiative and it’s great to see our employees embedding themselves within their community.” Lindsay Boswell, Chief Executive of FareShare said: “Thank you to every Bidfood employee who volunteered their time at our Regional Centres across the UK this Volunteers’ Week. “Volunteers are the lifeblood of FareShare, and make it possible for us to get good food out to charities supporting people in need. It’s always an eye-opening and rewarding experience to be a part of redistributing surplus food on the ground and we hope it has brought our partnership with Bidfood to life for their colleagues.” The campaign has been a great success, engaging all of Bidfood’s depots across the UK in a bid to give back to the local community. There has also been an extremely positive response from team members, including many who are keen to take part in volunteering activities in the future.