Last Thursday was Agents Giving Day, a day about rallying agents across the UK to fundraise for their local food banks.
Here at Paramount we work closely with the West Hampstead Community Food Hub throughout the year. For us, Agents Giving Day was about generating as many donations as we could for the Food Hub because they are a vital resource for many families in our local community.
Right now they support over 120 families every week, and with the cost of living going up, they expect to see increased pressure to provide food relief.
So we put the call out to our neighbours to donate anything they could spare. We were so grateful to have that call answered, with tote bags full of non-perishables dropped off by people who saw the message.
We even had five boxes full of treats, food and other items delivered by an auctioneer company called Criterion.
To add to the mix, Paramount and our Lettings Director Spencer Lawrence both donated funds, which myself and my colleague Talila took straight to Sainsbury's. Armed with a list of the Food Hub's most needed items, we grabbed a cart and a scanner and got to work. By the time we reached the till, we had collected 355 items!
It took multiple cars to get everything to Sidings Community Centre - where the Food Hub is based. We were met by Pranay Hariharan, one of the founders of the programme. He was happy to have these donations coming in - especially now. He told me that with costs going up, even regular deliveries they rely on from charities like The Felix Project aren't what they used to be.
If you'd like to read more about the programme that Pranay runs with his team at the Food Hub, you can visit their website here. The Ham&High also wrote an interesting article about them here.
For our part, we will continue to do our best to collect as much as we can for the Food Hub to help combat the growing pressure for food support in West Hampstead.
