Kind hearted company bosses and trading standards officers have given local food banks an incredible boost.
Bosses at We Can Foods in Salford were left with a can mountain after stores delisted items such as beef hotpot and vegetable balti. The company, which has been trading for two years and has 11 staff, cans and distributes food across the UK.
But thanks to Salford City Council officers, they have donated over 11,500 cans weighing more than four and a half tonnes to local charities and foodbanks across Greater Manchester.
Technical manager Terry Earnshaw from the Wardley based firm, said they could have been faced with sending all the cans to landfill until trading standards officers stepped in.
“We discussed where it could go and trading standards got in touch with Salford Central Foodbank and homeless charity Emmaus Salford who snapped it up. It’s good to be giving something back and know it’s going to be put to good use.”
Caroline Clarke, chief trading standards officer at Salford City Council, said: “We discovered the food mountain problem during a routine visit and were happy to help find a solution.
Staff from our environment division volunteered to help load the van and deliver it to Trafford Park in their own time. As a council we support local food banks by organising regular collections amongst our staff but we were blown away by the scale of this donation.”
The cans, which include 5,000 tins of soya beans for soups and stews, 1700 cans of chilli beans, over 1,100 cans of BBQ beans and nearly 1000 tins of beef hot pot, will be stored and distributed by TDB Training in Trafford Park.
Andy Valko, quality manager at TDB Training said:” We’re a training company working with unemployed people teaching warehousing and construction skills.
“Last November we set up a community interest company to give something back to the community and linked up with foodbanks in Salford and Manchester.
“We provide free storage for them and our trainees run a real, working warehouse, using fork lift trucks to unload, sorting food into categories and date order and then dealing with the food banks who come to collect. This donation could be on its way to local people in need by the weekend.”
Simon Locke, community leader Emmaus Salford, which is one of the charities which will benefit. He said: “Our biggest outlay is on food. The companions work really hard every day so we want to give them high quality food for high quality work. Being able to access free food means we can spend more on steak – something everyone will enjoy.”
Mark Whittington, general manager of Salford Central Foodbank, which will also benefit added: “When I heard about the donation I thought – that’s a lot of food! In 2015 we fed 3,260 families so this donation will make a real difference. Having this storage is brilliant and the guys at TDB even sort it for us as well.”
Photo: Simon Locke, community leader Emmaus Salford, Tracy Blades, managing director of TDB Training, Andy Valko, quality manager TDB Training, Mark Whittington, manager Salford Central Food bank, Nick Carr-Brown, general manager Fareshare, Caroline Clarke, principal trading standards officer and Gareth Hollinsgworth senior trading standards officer, Salford City Council.
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