Food warehouse closes but Help Hub support still available

With the delivery of its 32,000^th food parcel, the Blackburn with Darwen Help Hub food warehouse is closing at the end of June.

The temporary warehouse, plus a distribution network, was set up in late March as part of Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council’s response to the Coronavirus lockdown.

Over the last 13 weeks, a 50 strong team of warehouse staff and delivery teams – made up of redeployed Council staff – have made daily deliveries to people who cannot go out to buy food and drink and have no other means of support.

Coun Phil Riley, Executive Member for Growth & Development, said:

We owe Euro Garages a huge debt of thanks for their support in providing us with a warehouse on Frontier Park from which we could operate our temporary BwD Help Hub food warehouse operation. Euro Garages also helped us to set up our supply chain, which has seen us distribute a staggering 350 tonnes of food and drink to local people in need.

When the public sector and local businesses work together, great things can happen – and our Help Hub operation is an excellent example of that.

Zuber Issa, Founder and Co-CEO of EG Group, commented:

The Council has brought together various stakeholders to support the vulnerable during this challenging and unprecedented period. As a local business owner, I have been able to give back to my community. Moreover, this type of public/private/voluntary sector collaboration delivers many positive outcomes for the people in our area. I am proud to have been able to have contributed to the success of the Help Hub initiative.

The Council’s Growth Programme Director Simon Jones, who has been managing the food warehouse operation, added:

I want to add a huge thank you to all the staff who’ve been working at the warehouse or making deliveries since late March. These staff have been redeployed from other positions that are completely different to their warehouse roles. So many Council staff put themselves forward to help in the warehouse or in our delivery teams because they wanted to be a part of the support network for local people in need. Their efforts deserve to be recognised – over the last three months they’ve gone way beyond the call of duty.

Although deliveries of food parcels from the BwD Help Hub are stopping, the Hub will continue to support residents across the borough in a variety of ways.

Council teams and local partners will continue to take referrals from the Help Hub to give people whatever support they need to recover from the crisis – including financial advice, learning and training programmes, and mental health support.

Anyone who is still having difficulty accessing food and drink will be supported to find the best solution for them, from food parcels to hot meals – and even priority bookings for supermarket deliveries.

This includes residents who are shielding at home because of health conditions.

Coun Mustafa Desai, Executive Member for Adult Services, said:

The partnerships that have developed over the last three months will continue to be valuable as we support vulnerable people through the recovery phase of the crisis.

Together, we are here to support people to move their lives forward as things gradually get back to normal. No one in Blackburn with Darwen will be left without any support.

To contact the BwD Help Hub:

• Call 01254 588111 between 9am & 5pm Monday to Friday
• Fill in the online BwD Help Hub form at blackburn.gov.uk/helphub.