Rose Hill Community Larder during Covid-19

The Rose Hill Community Larder is coordinated through a partnership of OW Richard Kennell (OW 1986) and MCS. OW Richard Kennell, the SOFEA Community Larder CEO, comments on how the organisation has been handling the Covid-19 crisis.

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“Since the start of the Covid crisis, SOFEA has ramped up its supply of food to those who are disadvantaged and vulnerable. Working with our partners FareShare we have been receiving over 100 tonnes of surplus food from the food industry per month – ambient, chilled and frozen stock and supporting over 150 organisations to keep feeding those who need it.

We have rapidly developed the way we work, so that we are now producing 5,000 emergency food boxes of non perishables with additional fruit and veg  from our two sites each week. We have made these boxes available free of charge and are working with partners such as Oxford City Council, Citizens’ Advice, Oxfordshire Community Foundation and others to distribute the boxes.

Our staff and volunteer force includes many young people who themselves are disadvantaged, our mission is to provide them with the skills and attributes they need to progress, they are doing an amazing job working at five times the pace we were six weeks ago.

Initially we were inundated with goods destined for the hospitality industry over the Easter period. Huge quantities of fruit and vegetables, Easter eggs and chocolates as well as airline meals. As the crisis has unfolded our work with FareShare and the supermarkets has evolved, so Tesco, Asda and the Coop in particular have been providing steady volumes of staples and luxuries for redistribution.”

Richard Kennell, OW 1986 and SOFEA CEO.

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An enormous thank you to Richard and the team at SOFEA for all your hard work! To donate to SOFEA, click here.