Burton Latimer and Corby Weetabix workers donate Christmas meal money to charity

Employees of a Burton Latimer food giant have donated the money that would have been spent on their works Christmas dinner to provide festive food for a charity.

Weetabix staff across their Burton Latimer and Corby sites have partnered with charity Food4Heroes to bring Christmas cheer to deliver 1,000 freshly cooked Christmas meals to families across the county.

Instead of tucking in to their festive meal, the cash pot used to provide a Christmas lunch for the 1,100 employees in the Weetabix restaurant will be spent in the community.

The meals will be cooked by local caterer Mat Norris at Portfolio Events who is also donating his time to support the effort.

Francesca Theokli, marketing director at Weetabix Food Company, said: “It’s been a really tough year for so many in the local community, and we know from our work with initiatives such as the Marcus Rashford Child Food Poverty Taskforce and FareShare that the number of families struggling to feed their children is on the up.

“We’re delighted to be supporting the heroic work that Food4Heroes are doing in our local community. I would like to offer an enormous thank you to our brilliant employees at Weetabix who have worked so hard to keep feeding the nation through the pandemic and who are now getting involved with this community effort to ensure that those who need it will get served a hot, tasty dinner on Christmas Day.”

Food4Heroes, who ran a successful campaign during the first national lockdown to provide 230,000 meals to frontline NHS staff, is now taking up the fight against food poverty by working with local caterers and foodbanks to provide freshly cooked, nutritious meals.

To kickstart the campaign, the Weetabix Food Company has kindly donated the money to help Food4Heroes deliver meals to those in need this Christmas.

Alongside the meals available for collection at Kettering, Daventry and Weston Favell food banks, dinners will also be delivered to other people in need by a network of volunteers at food poverty organisation, Sofea. This means that community organisations, such as churches and schools, can request a meal for someone they believe is in need.

Employees from Weetabix also plan to help deliver the freshly cooked Yule-time dinners themselves.

Steve Tipping, operations director for Food4Heroes, said: “We are incredibly grateful for the kind donation from Weetabix which will help to feed 1,000 people in need this Christmas.

“Due to COVID-19, there has been a dramatic rise in the number of people facing food poverty and there will be many people in our communities facing the heartbreaking choice between heating and eating.

“Food4Heroes knows the importance and huge difference a healthy, nutritious and hot meal can make to a person’s mental health and wellbeing and we know these Christmas meals will be very gratefully received by everyone who receives one.”

The organisation is entirely funded through donations which cover the cost of the ingredients, preparation and delivery for Food4Heroes meals.

To make a donation, or find out how to get involved, please click here.