My story

Back in April 2020 during the pandemic, I was just driving along our city and I saw a very big queue of people lining up, I thought what's that all about? Why are people lining up? I've stopped my car to have a look and turns out the people were all lining up for the food bank, it broke my heart to see people who weren't wearing the correct clothing to keep themselves warm or even wearing slippers in the queue. But the most stand out thing was I saw a mother having 4 children with her lining up and getting as much food as she could. It has opened my eyes a bit to what my community needs today. I thought to myself, I worked in hospitality pretty much all my life, why is it ok to feed or serve all my guests well? But in my community, there are lots of people in need of food, and yet I'm not doing anything about it. From that moment I said to myself that I would contribute to the food bank.

At the start, I didn't know what I was doing, I didn't know what to buy, how much to spend, or what food banks needed. All I did was whatever I saw for food wise then I'll just put it on the trolley. But slowly, I started to plan it properly, firstly by setting a budget, and then to find out where the cheapest item would be in our grocery supermarkets and then start buying the food that the food bank needs. I started with a very small quantity feeding an average of 10-20 families every month. But then I received some big donations from other friends and as a result, I was able to raise my quantities of food and feed an average of 40-50 families per month. With a large budget in my hand, I was buying all sorts of foods such as meat, rice, pasta, milk, cereals, fruit tin, and pretty much everything that the MK food bank needs then I will get them.

However, in 2022, with inflation and the cost of living going up. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to buy as many things as I used to due to prices going up in the food, but I did my best to carry on and keep donating to the food bank.

In October 2023, I was proud to be part of the MK Can event and provided 300 cans of food for the big world record attempt. And we smashed it! 102447 cans were all lined up

The MK Food Bank provides emergency food parcels to families and individuals in Milton Keynes, who have hit a short term crisis. Operating through local care agencies e.g CAB, Social Services etc we can ensure people are receiving help with their underlying issues.

This year I will be running the MK Marathon and the 5k rocket and I'm hoping to raise £2000, hopefully by reading my story you will be inspired by this incredible journey I've been on and I'm hoping you will be part of it by making a donation. Click on view gallery on the front cover picture to view my food bank journey