Banbury volunteer group delivering 1,000 home-made meals a week for NHS through Food4Heroes scheme

The group volunteers are serving as part of a national Food4Heroes scheme helping to provide for the NHS.

The team includes a group of alumni from Tudor Hall, an independent secondary school, near Banbury. The school has loaned out its new kitchen for the local Food4Heroes meal scheme.

The initiative is led by Hester Sale, and her daughter, Connie, 22, who has returned to the family home near Brailes, after having been furloughed from her job in London.

Mrs Sale, a local cook and Tudor Hall School alumni, approached Wendy Griffiths, the school's headteacher, to ask if she and her team could prepare the meals in the kitchen where the girls normally study food and nutrition.

Miss Griffiths said: “It’s a very small part that we can play at Tudor Hall in supporting those who work in the NHS at this time when the whole country needs to get behind them.

"It’s fantastic that so many of our Old Tudorians and their families have formed the core of the volunteers.”

Mrs Sale, who prior to the lockdown worked in the catering business, is accustomed to catering for big numbers – at this time of year she would normally be doing weddings for around 200 people – but the Food4Heroes work goes even further.

She said: “Writing out a shopping list for 1,390 meals in a week is quite an undertaking."

Mrs Sale and her team of local Food4Heroes volunteers are cooking, labelling, packaging and delivering 150 delicious meals a day seven days a week.

The group of volunteers has grown since the scheme started seven weeks ago to now involve more than 80 volunteers.

The volunteers have prepared, cooked and delivered 1,050 meals per week and by week's end will have delivered more than 7,350 home-made meals to NHS staff members at the Horton and JR.

The meals, which include chicken and mushroom lasagne, macaroni cheese with leeks and spinach, meatballs in tomato sauce with penne pasta and Thai aubergine curry, can be eaten at lunchtime or taken home after a nightshift.

Yolanda Jacob, operational manager at the Horton, said: “For the past five weeks Food4Heroes has worked alongside the Horton General Hospital Charity by providing 150 hot meals a day for staff at the Horton.

"These have been such a boost for staff at this difficult time and we are incredibly grateful to all those involved in making this wonderful scheme possible.

"We are utterly humbled by the generosity and kindness that is presently being shown to our hospital both through donations and support via the Horton General Hospital Charity and the thoughtful messages we receive.”

Mrs Sale thanked Miss Griffiths for allowing her to use the Tudor Hall School kitchen and the school’s van for deliveries.

She said: “We are indebted to Tudor Hall for their generosity and support for Food4Heroes. Without them we couldn’t have got this project off the ground.

"The staff at the Horton Hospital have looked after various members of my family over the years so it is lovely to be able to give something back.

"They are so supportive and hard-working and always have a smile on their faces.”

Mrs Sale and her team need more funds so that they can keep giving meals to the NHS staff at the Horton Hospital and John Radcliffe. She said they also hope to expand the local Food4Heroes meal delivers to NHS staff at local area care homes.

She said: "We're desperate need of more money to keep going."

Anyone who would like to donate money to keep this service going during the pandemic can see their Just Giving web page: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/food4heroesPeople who donate are asked to write 'Food4Heroes Horton/John Radcliffe' to ensure that the money goes directly to the local volunteers.

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