Community centre cafe delivers food to vulnerable residents

The Hornbeam café in Walthamstow is using donations from the Tesco Community Food Connection to provide those who can’t go out and get their own supplies during the coronavirus pandemic with food and meals.

The café, based in the Hornbeam community centre on Hoe Street, is currently closed to the public but volunteers are cycling the food to people’s houses, as well as offering takeaway options for those who are able to collect.

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Claire de Silva, Tesco’s head of community, said: “There are so many areas that have vulnerable people who are in need of extra help with food, particularly in the current climate, and we agree that it is so important to ensure that no food is going to waste.”

“With all of our stores taking part in Community Food Connection we urge charities to collect the free food provided by the scheme. I would invite any group who thinks they could use the food in their community to contact FareShare, so we can help even more local groups.”

Community Food Connection, run in conjunction with food charity FareShare, operates in every Tesco store and provides groups like the Hornbeam centre and café with surplus food to distribute to those most in need at the end of each day.

Other surplus food is taken to food banks so it can be distributed to the homeless, those with dementia and young families.

An organiser from The Rukshana Khan Foundation, a Walthamstow food bank that receives food from Hornbeam, said: “We hugely appreciate the volunteers on bikes who drop food off to our food bank each Saturday. The food is invaluable, especially when the baskets are getting smaller and smaller with food items due to lack of funds.”

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