Hucknall Food Bank is awarded £10,000 by BNA charitable trust

As duty manager at the town’s Specsavers, Hannah Beale has organised collections for the food bank at Christmas for the past five years.

And after finding herself with more spare time during the pandemic Hannah, who lives on Hankin Street, decided to pour her energies into helping struggling families. She has so far collected 60 bags of food and toiletries after a massive response to an appeal she put out on Facebook.

The mum of two said: “I did it because of the community spirit in Hucknall. I’m overwhelmed by the response, it has been amazing.”

“I've struggled with the furlough, wondering what to do with myself. I couldn't sit back watching television and eating so I wanted to give back - turn a bad thing into a good thing.”

Hannah, 39, has secured the food bank its biggest donation in seven years of operating. Her uncle, Keith Girling, who is based in Newark, is a trustee of the BNA charitable trust. Hannah said: “He had to take my request to the other trustees who said they would give £10,000. I was over the moon.”

Yvonne Campbell, project manager for the food bank, said that demand for emergency supplies had risen by 60 percent since the coronavirus pandemic started and 150 parcels were going out each month.

She praised Hannah for doing a wonderful job and said that the food bank was grateful for the donation from the BNA charitable trust. Yvonne said: “We're amazed that someone could be so generous to give us such a lot of money. It's the biggest donation by miles.

“We’ve had a wonderful response from people. We’ve got a boy doing a 5k run to raise money, two boys have been planting seeds and selling plants off and there are lots of other people helping immensely.”

Generous Hannah will help with a collection for Hucknall Food Bank on May 1 to be spearheaded by the fire service. Anyone who would like to support that collection, should email: [email protected]