Wales On Sunday

Firm takes the food to the families in lockdown

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A NORTH Wales food wholesaler is ramping up aid to struggling families with three mercy missions a week.

Harlech Foodservic­e has sent 10 truckloads of supplies worth £60,000, including bread, eggs and dairy products, and even salmon and steak in the past two weeks.

Their latest drops to food banks across North Wales and in Cheshire and Shropshire include 180 boxes of bread, more than 10,000 eggs, 79 trays of yoghurts and 98 catering-size cooking sauces as well as bread roll and sponge cake mix.

If it’s not quite feeding the 5,000, it’s not far short after the expanding company, whose customers include schools, pubs, restaurant­s and care homes, was left with a warehouse full of fresh, frozen, chilled, tinned and nonperisha­ble goods at its headquarte­rs near Criccieth.

Ten of the company’s fleet of delivery vans are now busy keeping food banks stocked up, including at Pwllheli, Colwyn Bay, Northwich and Winsford in Cheshire and Telford and Newport in Shropshire.

Harlech’s digital project manager Ceri Brown works with the team to coordinate the supply chain and she said: “We had to be prepared for the new school term in January but of course when schools were closed we were left with a huge amount of food which we needed to use.

“We are working closely with some incredible organisati­ons to help people hit hardest by the pandemic and we wanted to share it out across our area of operation.”

Among those they supply is the Telford Food Share Project in Shropshire, where project founder Lea Beven said: “We’re really grateful to Harlech who make such a huge contributi­on to our efforts.”

Care homes, which have been hit hardest by the pandemic, are also being supplied and Ceri added: “We are looking for some more places to deliver to, especially those that can take chilled and frozen food and food approachin­g its best-before date. Not every food bank takes that, so we are also keen to hear from those that do.”

Harlech Foodservic­e has been in business since 1972 and now has bases at Criccieth, Gwynedd, and Chester and between the two locations, the company employs around 200 staff and runs a fleet of vehicles to deliver more than 10,000 product lines.

 ?? MANDY JONES ?? Harlech Foodservic­e delivery driver Tadek Jones with some of the food going to food banks
MANDY JONES Harlech Foodservic­e delivery driver Tadek Jones with some of the food going to food banks

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