The UK’s best community bank, Metro Bank, gives every colleague a Day to Amaze – essentially a paid day off to support a local charity or good cause. Colleagues from Metro Bank’s Colchester store chose to use their Days to Amaze as volunteers at Clacton FoodCycle which is feeding local families in need.
FoodCycle Clacton-on-Sea serves a cook and collect takeaway service offering a free nutritious meal every Monday lunchtime at the Pier Avenue Baptist Church. Each week, a bunch of willing volunteers collect surplus fruit and vegetables local markets and turn these ingredients into tasty meals that customers can take away and enjoy.
Colchester Metro Bank colleagues Jade Ismay, Lauren Crow, Olivia Grace Mallett and Neethyan Anandan helped pack up bags which were filled with groceries and produce ready for local individuals and families to provide them with meals for the week. In total they bagged up 100 bags - each bag providing a family with meals for the week. They also helped give out a total of 150 three course meals which had been prepared with donated ingredients to ensure the homeless in the local area are guaranteed at least one hot meal a week.
“Helping out at the FoodCycle was a great experience and it was great to see the work the charity does in the community and the relationships they have are amazing,” commented Olivia Grace Mallett, customer service representative, Metro Bank. “I am looking forward to being able to help out again in the future”.
“We had such a positive experience volunteering at the FoodCycle. I am extremely grateful that we have the opportunity to complete a Day to Amaze and have the support of Metro Bank to do so,” explains Jade Ismay, customer service representative, Metro Bank. “Seeing and being a part of a day’s work at the FoodCycle was truly inspiring for the amazing working they are all doing to support their local community and I would love the chance to help out again in the near future.”
FoodCycle is also working with a doctor’s surgery in the local area and taking names of those who are not able to register with a GP to make sure they are getting the COVID vaccine!