Herne Bay foodbank recognised with the King's Award for Volunteers

KentOnline / KMTV

Maya's Community Foodbank helps those in Herne Bay who might be struggling to afford food, clothes or other essentials, and they've been recognised with the King's Award for Volunteers.    Finn Macdiarmid reports.

Transcript

00:00Mayer's Community Support Centre in Herne Bay looked a little different this morning.

00:10They were sporting royal colours after being crowned with a King's Award for Voluntary

00:14Service, a national way of recognising charities and their volunteers.

00:19The food bank has been open for three years and makes sure people can access food, clothing

00:23and other basic essentials if they're struggling.

00:26It's been a long road to this, but how did the charity get on the Royal Radar in the

00:30first place?

00:31They came to us and they researched all our services and what they said is, you are like

00:36an all-inclusive holiday, you have everything.

00:40That's what judges say, it's literally all-inclusive service.

00:43Whatever people need, we have it.

00:46And it's all from waste, we reduce massive amount of waste, we have a bridge between people

00:51in need and a waste, we reduce a lot of carbon offset.

00:57Carbon offset is one of the main topics and poverty, we give the waste to the people in

01:03need.

01:04We are that bridge.

01:05Now, Mayer's has been going as a charity for about three years and during that time it's

01:09been helping the community here in Herne Bay and it's also been winning awards.

01:13But what makes this award particularly special isn't just the fact that it comes from the

01:17King but also that it highlights the efforts of their volunteers as well.

01:20Well, we've got a whole team of volunteers, some you see, some you don't, we've got people

01:24work behind the scenes, we've got people who are going out collecting every night, rain

01:29or shine, winter or summer, collecting food from the supermarkets, half past eight, nine

01:33o'clock at night and then they are making sure that people get that food and it doesn't

01:37go into landfill.

01:38So today is a combination of all that anticipation and so it's really lovely to recognise our volunteers.

01:49The award is essentially an MBE for volunteers who give their time to the cause without payment

01:53or normally much recognition for their efforts.

01:56It's very special, it's very special because we put a lot of hours in, a lot of time and

02:01it's nice to actually get something back.

02:03Well, we work so hard, like nine till three, it's just absolutely amazing.

02:10With volunteers and everything we do, it kind of helps everyone as it should.

02:15The award is quite rare, only 0.03% of charities in the country ever receive it and it's the

02:21highest honour they can get.

02:24Once Myers volunteers had their coronation, they celebrated with music and a feast fit for

02:29kings.

02:30I'm Dave Dermid for KMTV in Handein.

02:31I'm Dave Dermid for KMTV in Handein.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended