Colnbrook volunteer group arranges 7,000 food packages since pandemic start

A community group has delivered more than 7,000 free food packages to homes in Colnbrook during the ongoing pandemic.

Colnbrook Cares is a group of 20 volunteers which successfully applied to Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN)’s Resilient Communities Fund.

The group received a £3,000 award in the spring to enable them to establish their support centre and food distribution scheme.

Since then, the group has sourced and distributed packages to 100 homes three times a week during peak periods and set aside additional packages to help those self-isolating to celebrate VE Day and Christmas.

Colnbrook Cares is in the process of forming a constitution that will ensure Colnbrook has a formal group to provide resilience for residents in any situation for years to come.

Its ongoing voluntary work has also helped support the efforts of other local organisations, Slough Council for Voluntary Service (SCVS) and Slough Outreach.

Chair of Colnbrook Cares, Puja Bedi said: “We knew there was a need for more support for Colnbrook’s more vulnerable residents, and the assistance from villagers and SSEN meant we were able to act quickly, leaflet-dropping every home in our community to let them know we were there.”

Anthony Urquhart, SSEN’s Head of Region, said:

“The scale of the volunteers’ efforts is testament to how much a small group of people can achieve when they know how much their community is relying on their help.”