Washington volunteers' 'military operation' to feed hundreds of people this Christmas

Last Christmas the charity Feeding Families set up a packing centre at the Whitehouse Social Club in Blackfell. But in 2020 this was not possible due to covid-19.

The charity helps people across the region who might be experiencing poverty. Previously they had a string of packing centres across the North East, but they have been restricted to just three centres this year.

So a squad of local volunteers leapt into action to transport food to Washington, which was then packed up into hampers before being distributed to care homes and struggling families and individuals in the area. The operation was all carried out within social distancing.

One of the volunteers, packing and distributing, was Bernie Scaplehorn who is a Washington West councillor.

He said: “This has absolutely been a community effort. It’s taken so many people to do this.”

“I got a call from Juliet Sanders, who is the CEO of Feeding Families. She said they had spare food supplies and asked if we could distribute them around Washington. I said ‘Absolutely’.

“We had to go to Pity Me in County Durham and Byers Green near Bishop Auckland to pick up the food. It was a bit like mobilising a military unit. We’ve made up 275 hampers.

“On top of that Juliet had some spare food, ready to pack into more hampers. There was five or six tons of loose food."

It has been a truly Washington-wide effort. Mr Scaplehorn added that although there were many people who deserved credit for helping out, there were too many of them to name.

However, he particularly acknowledged Jimmy Warne, Michael Walker, Brian and Maureen Wilson, Paul Adgar, Cllr John Kelly and volunteers at the Washington Millennium Centre in Concord.

Credit too goes to Mickey’s Place – a community hub at St Michael’s Church in Sulgrave, Oxclose Church and Washington Community Food Project.

With Christmas in 2020 set to be especially tough for many families, the efforts of the volunteers have been hugely appreciated.

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