Loree Wilson founded Make Your Way Food Bank before the pandemic, helping those in need with food parcels and furniture packages. Local Businessman Rob Armstrong, and other local businesses have pulled together to support this amazing organisation in Newcastle.
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00:00I was doing furniture upcycling projects, outreach projects, to people on probation
00:07through Make Your Way, that was why it was called Make Your Way, to help them steer away
00:10from having to go through probation again. And I got a contract with Sunderland City
00:15Council to deliver furniture packages to families and people in crisis. That's when I was delivering
00:20the furniture, I realised that the people I was delivering the furniture to didn't have
00:24food or enough food to last until the end of the week. I decided that I did want to
00:28be able to offer that service along with the furniture packages and I started researching
00:34and making calls how you could get food for a food bank. We work with all the local schools
00:39around Kenton and Gosforth. We've had pupils who have come into the food bank, I've showed
00:45them around, they've come with a little list of questions and asked how the food bank works.
00:49I've done presentations in schools where if a school does say a harvest festival collection
00:54for us, I'll then say to them, for what you've done for us, would you like me to come and
00:59talk to the children about what we do at the food bank? And that's worked really well and
01:02I'm hoping to carry on doing that in the future as well. The more people have the knowledge
01:06around why food banks exist, as well as the people that need the food banks, why they
01:10need them, then it's more of a supportive community thing. So I met Rob in this environment
01:17three years ago. He said that he wanted to help because he said, his words, if there'd
01:23been a food bank in Kenton when I was little, my mum would have used it, which I thought
01:28was like, you know, he's collaborated with nearby taxis and nearby taxis has funded some
01:35of the rent for Kenton Food Bank. And then other business partners that Mr. Armstrong
01:40knows, he asked them if they would come together to support Kenton Food Bank with its overheads
01:45and five local businessmen have agreed to do that. So it's five people, five businesses
01:52all together that have put some money together to make sure that Kenton Food Bank will have
01:55its rent paid for until December 2025.