In the last of our special Food Waste Action Week podcast episodes, we’re taking you to meet another one of our community food members.
Trafford Veterans has been working with FareShare Greater Manchester since the Covid pandemic. The group, which supports armed forces & emergency services veterans living in Trafford, has been running for a decade. When the pandemic hit, it extended the services it offers to include food too.
Veteran Support
In 2015, the group was formed after its two founding members, Royal Navy Veteran, Claire Wright & British Army Veteran Chris Squires (pictured below), left the armed forces and faced a struggle with physical and mental injuries. This affected their transition from the military back into their respective communities.
Chris and Claire’s experiences prompted them to provide peer support to other veterans and members of the community, so people would not feel alone.
Each week, with the help of local volunteers, they run a Friday Hub where people can come to access help and support as well as enjoy a light lunch. Their monthly Breakfast Club offers a social space for people to meet and chat over a cooked breakfast. Both of these events are supported by food they receive from FareShare Greater Manchester.
We went along to one of their monthly Breakfast Clubs to find out more about what they do and see where some of the good-to-eat surplus food we provide them with goes. You can see some photos below of the Breakfast Club and the North West Corps of Drums which includes Claire and her fellow veterans and performed for the members during our visit.
You can find out more about Trafford Veterans on their website.
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Calling all catering community groups
Catering groups make up a small but hugely important part of our Community Food Membership. Increasingly, we receive larger amounts of catering sized packs of food, so we are looking to sign up more catering groups to our books. If you’re cooking for your local community and think we can help you with food, please get in touch with us. Contact our Membership & Information Coordinator Karina on membership@emergemanchester.co.uk or give us a call on 0161 223 8200 (Option 4).
