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Paying back to the community

77 days ago

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When a foodbank in the village of Wath upon Dearne, South Yorkshire, put out an urgent request for help with collecting and distributing essential food supplies for people who were self-isolating, Sodexo Justice’s Community Payback team were only too happy to help.

Early on Saturday morning of the Bank Holiday weekend, South Yorkshire Community Payback volunteers, headed up by manager Pete Coulton and supported by supervisors Michael, Hannah and Brian (pictured below), set to work distributing food donations to charity.

The Community Payback team

After completing health and safety checks, the team worked at a social distance to load three Community Payback vans with food and goods donated by Morrisons supermarket and their customers. The team then transported the vital supplies to the foodbank for local volunteers to pack and distribute the essential goods.

The Community Payback team usually supervises around 1,300 people, many of whom will be serving a sentence to complete unpaid work ordered by the courts. Community Payback provides free labour for local projects such as renovating public buildings, improving green spaces, and conservation work to support organisations such as charities, community groups, churches, schools and colleges. However, due to the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic this work activity has been suspended.

The CPT vans

The team is continuing to expand its support across South Yorkshire and has also helped to collect and deliver prescriptions to those who are unable to leave their homes, supported a disabled person to get medicine for their pet, and helped three elderly couples who needed to isolate.

In addition to the standard PPE equipment used by the Community Payback staff, they have also equipped their vans with mobile hand washing stations to ensure staff can wash their hands regularly and help keep themselves and others safe.

Have you donated food to charity?

We know that many of you on site have donated surplus food to local charities when events were cancelled and customers started to work from home. If your site has donated food, we’re asking that you let us know the what, where and when by completing this short survey.

This is important so we can accurately track these acts of kindness for the purposes of Stop Hunger reporting, and so that we can celebrate our achievements with our clients and customers.

Want to read about more of our Hidden Heroes?

Want to read about more of our Hidden Heroes? Login* to Your_Sodexo and access the dedicated page where you can find out more about those truly making a difference across the region. Share the page with your colleagues and spread the good news! You'll also find the first of our weekly Hidden Heroes thank you videos from Sodexo Ambassador, Matt Dawson.

*If you can’t access the Your_Sodexo page, make sure to register for exclusive content and updates just for you.

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