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Kettering General Hospital is saying a big thank you to all of the charities which have supported its staff with 180,000 free meals since the Covid-19 pandemic began.

On March 31 the hospital’s free meal service came to an end and the final 500 free meals were distributed.

The hospital wants to thank all of the charities – and all of the local individuals and organisations – who have supported them with food and drink throughout the pandemic.

KGH distributes its final free food delivery to staff (L-R Head of Strategic and Corporate Fundraising, Jayne Chambers, with KGH volunteers, Andrew Christer, Lakshmi Kowdler, Angela Oljaca, and Office Manager for Radiology Wendy Height, prepare to deliver the final 500 meals)

The dedicated staff free meals support has come from the local branch of Food4Heroes, the national charity Salute the NHS, and NHS Charities Together (supported by Sir Tom Moore).

Jayne Chambers, who spearheaded the KGH ‘We Care’ initiative to support staff throughout the first two waves of the pandemic, said: “We have been overwhelmed by the support our

staff have received and want to thank every individual and organisation involved.

“As the first wave of the pandemic progressed it became clear that our teams were under very significant pressure, working long hours, in restrictive PPE, and were often ending the

day feeling stressed and exhausted.

“Our local community recognised this and did something to help by producing hot meals for staff – to enable them to relax at the end of the day.

“The first initiative was Food4Heroes.

"That was launched by local businesswomen Kate Toller and Wendy de Capell Brooke and their friends Stuart and Holly East from The Old White Hart in Lyddington.

"They produced and delivered 22,400 free meals to KGH between April 6 and May 31.

“Then the national charity Salute the NHS joined in with 21,800 food packs between June 1 and July 8.

“Since then the hospital has continued to provide the free meals service with the support of NHS Charities Together – which enabled us procure meals from The Old White Hart at

Lyddington and Gallarwood Catering from Higham Ferrers.”

KGH’s acting director of human resources, Paula Kirkpatrick, said: “On behalf of everyone at KGH I want to say a big thank you to all of the charities, and the many other individuals

and local groups, who have sent us donations of food and drink throughout the pandemic.

“The free meals and food packs have been very much appreciated by our staff and really helped to make life a little easier for them.”

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Incredible 180,000 free meals delivered to KGH staff since start of pandemic