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The Green Room of Bar Street has been helping the most vulnerable families in the community who are struggling to get food.

What started out with a delivery of 10 bags of shopping “kind of went crazy,” following a Facebook appeal.

In response to the poor quality provision of free school meal packages from the Government, The Green Room decided there must be a way they could help.

Donations of food from customers and the public have poured in.

“I’ve got children of my own and I just couldn’t bear the thought of any children going hungry,” said Rachel Akrill, co-owner and manager of The Green Room.

“We put an appeal on Facebook and it kind of went crazy. Customers started bringing in donations, people are giving us money at the door because we’re doing a delivery service.”

The Government meals have since been replaced with a voucher scheme following national outrage.

“So we’ve gone from doing the school lunches and now we’re providing bags of shopping for families and the homeless,” Rachel said.

Food parcels contain a range of items to help make nutritious meals.

“The outreach has been phenomenal, I’ve heard so many stories of people struggling with furlough and financially, it’s been quite the emotional rollercoaster.

“We’ve had people come forward to help us deliver the packages, and it’s just gone from one extreme to the other, it’s been really, really nice to make a difference, we just weren’t expecting it!”

The shopping contains dry goods, fresh bread, tins of beans, crisps, biscuits, fresh fruit and vegetables as well as home baked cakes along with easy to make recipe ideas for meals at home.

“It has been emotional, I have been in tears at times because you do not realise how much you’ve got until you realise how bad some people have it.

“The difference just one bag of shopping can make to some people is crazy.”

One person shocked staff with a donation of shopping worth £300. Solange Bakery has been donating fresh bread and CCG Supplies Ltd donated more than 100,000 antibacterial wipes worth £8,000 which are now being distributed to schools.

“By the end of the week or so, we’ll be coming close to 100 bags of shopping,” Rachel said.

All food is prepared in The Green Room kitchen in a Covid-safe way and dropped off with contactless delivery free of charge.

If you need a helping hand, contact The Green Room by phone on 01723 501 801, email [email protected], or Facebook.

The Green Room helps struggling Scarborough families with food shopping donations