When the Covid-19 pandemic took hold in March 2020, CREst began running a weekly food bank from Piper Hall in addition to its regular Tuesday Lunch Club. This continued to operate until the end of July 2021, with guests still able to access a hot meal and essential food items every Tuesday as part of its usual Tuesday gathering.
As many local food bank outlets were forced to close their doors at the start of lockdown, volunteer-run CREst increased its offering at Piper Hall to plug the gap and help vulnerable households across Norbiton during the pandemic.
This meant that, on top of the weekly hot lunch that the charity had been running every Tuesday for years for vulnerable residents and homeless people, it also started to operate a pop-up pandemic food bank from Piper Hall three days per week.
As a result, over 16 months, the charity fed at least 300 people every week across Norbiton, with the numbers continuing to rise steadily. You can read about what an ‘average’ week looks like for the charity here.
Thank you to all our local partners whose support has been invaluable throughout the pandemic.
These invaluable partnerships include:
- Local supermarkets such as Sainsbury’s Sury Basin
- Kingston charities including Save the World Club, City Harvest, Dons Local Action Group and Voices of Hope.
- The neighbouring Sunflower Streets Residents Association, whose members have volunteered their time and cooking skills