Lauren Taylor joined Shona Gossip and Daniel Boal at Cfine in Aberdeen to lend a helping hand as part of The Big Christmas Food Appeal.
Our mission was to pack 70 emergency food parcels with non-perishable essential items and deliver them to an Aberdeen community centre.
This may seem like a lot, but according to staff member June Johnstone, around 50 parcels a day are handed out from Cfine’s foodbank at Poynernook Road.
The social enterprise is kept busy all year long, however, with the festivities looming they are working even harder to ensure no one goes hungry this Christmas.
Cfine relies on volunteers to help pack these emergency food parcels and as part of The Big Christmas Food Appeal, we visited their headquarters to lend a hand.
Realising how many parcels we needed to get through so they could be delivered on time, we pulled on our hi-vis vests and were shown around.
The warehouses are a hive of activity, with staff and volunteers buzzing around moving pallets, rotating stock and making sure there is plenty of everything.
It can be quite overwhelming when you see the scale of the operation at first, but then you realise just how much food is actually being distributed.
Demand for the service has risen during the pandemic. Since April 2021, Cfine has distributed 681 tonnes of food – equivalent to 1,621,428 meals.
Each emergency food parcel contains; a tin of soup, a tinned meal, tuna, tinned vegetables, a cooking sauce, pasta, rice, a couple of pot noodles, teabags and either tinned fruit or a dessert.
We also found out that extra items can be added depending on requests and stock. This can include milk, bread, sanitary products, toiletries and even sweet treats like selection boxes.
Cfine has created an Amazon wishlist with everything they need to provide someone with.
Volunteers are the ‘backbone’ of Cfine
With 70 bags to fill we set to work filling crate after crate. While we worked around our station stocked with everything we needed, others buzzed around us, it felt like it never stopped.
In just over two hours, the four of us had managed to bag up all 70 of the parcels – we even had time to pack extra parcels ready for tomorrow.
Looking at our pallet stacked high with crates filled with the much-needed emergency food ready to be dropped off really did feel like an accomplishment. But, that’s something volunteers achieve every single day.
@CFINEAberdeen are working tirelessly to support people across the north and north-east. As part of @pressjournal Big Food Appeal we got the chance to make and deliver food parcels. 1/ pic.twitter.com/ejzoaBUIyu
— Daniel Boal (@_Danielboal) December 13, 2021
Volunteers are described as the “backbone of the organisation” by development manager Graeme Robbie. After spending one morning volunteering to get the emergency food parcels ready it’s clear that they truly do play a big part.