Meals From Marlow
Nobody in the Marlow area should go hungry
Meals from Marlow is managed operationally and financially by All Saints’ Church. However anyone of any faith or none can benefit or volunteer to help. In fact the volunteer force is made up 60:40 of non-church members and church members, and almost all the people we help do not belong to the church.
Our strapline is that nobody in the Marlow area should go hungry. Anybody can be referred to us for help, they can even refer themselves. If you are in need we will help you. We ask no questions.
We deliver frozen ready meals, up to five per person per week in the Marlow area. As resources allow, we also help the wider community.
We are now in partnership with COOK, producer of high class frozen meals. We believe everyone deserves to eat good nutritious food. So our recipients receive meals identical to those purchased in the COOK high street stores.
So how did all this start …
Towards the end of March 2020, at the height of the Covid pandemic, Wexham Park Hospital in Slough posted on their social platforms about their staff, who were working 18-hour shifts, eating from vending machines and when they finally found the time to reach the supermarket – they were met with empty shelves because of panic buying.
This sparked motivation for Tom Kerridge (TV chef), Andy Agar and Chris Hughes (Pub In the Park) to help. They set up a Go Fund Me page and were shocked when the target of £100,000 was raised in just two days!
With the support of Pub In The Park and Lush by Tom Kerridge alongside the teams at The Hand and Flowers and The Coach, a ready meal production line was set up.
Tom and the Lush team handled the hospital deliveries and All Saints Marlow provided a volunteer team to deliver the meals to local families who were most in need.
At the peak of the lockdown period between Tom’s team and the All Saints Team 750 meals were delivered daily.
Once the pandemic was over it was realised that there was still a need to help people feed their families, so what was initially a short-term service has become a long-term project.
In total Meals From Marlow have delivered over 220,000 meals.
Whilst 220,000 meals is beyond all that we expected to achieve when Meals From Marlow was set up, we haven’t finished yet. Today, partnered by COOK, who provide all our meals, we deliver circa 200-250 meals per week and when funds allow will recommence supporting other areas, with plans to begin in the summer of 2025.
Since the pandemic, money has been raised by the founders via a charity dinner at the Compleat Angler Hotel, a celebrity cricket match and, recently, the founders have supported Meals From Marlow through a charity day at Pub in the Park. Pub in the Park continues to be our main funder but money is received also through personal and company donations.
Volunteers are always needed to deliver meals on Wednesday and Saturday mornings. It takes about one hour no more than once a fortnight so if you feel you would like to help, we would be glad to hear from you.
The project is managed by Muriel Reynolds and Alison Branch. To refer someone to receive a meal, or to volunteer, please contact them on mealsfrommarlow@4u-team.org
