Morrisons South Shields donates food packages to help Hospitality and Hope

Mark Patterson, community champion at Morrisons South Shields, said he will be working closely with Hospitality and Hope’s community shop in the coming weeks to help provide food parcels to those in need.

Mark said has been working with Hospitality and Hope wellbeing manager Kerry Bell to support this cause.

Together they came up with an alternative to a takeaway pizza, in the form of a healthy option.

Morrisons has supplied all the ingredients to make up the healthy pizza along with a recipe pack which will be donated to those in need at Horsley Hill’s community shop

where people come in and pay a small fee and get shopping worth a lot more than they pay for it.

Mark said: “I am really pleased to be working with this project. I have organised a healthy pack that will contain all the ingredients and a step by step guide to cook the meal. We have arranged a monthly pack that will be available at the community shop.

"I hope these packs will inspire people to get into the kitchen and start cooking healthy meals”.

Mark said to help those in need, Morrison’s already gives surplus food to local causes, such as food banks through its unsold food programme.

In addition, its in-store Food Bank ‘Pick Up Pack’ scheme, allows customers to purchase a bag filled with a mix of food products, which are distributed to local food banks and community organisations by in-store Community Champions supporting individuals and families.

Hospitality and Hope is a South Tyneside-based charity working at grassroots level in the borough and the North East of England.

It was founded in 2002 with help from church volunteers who saw a need to support homeless and vulnerable people in the area.

They began by walking the streets and offering hot drinks and sandwiches to those in need, and the organisation has since grown to help many people.

The charity and others have been particularly busy during the pandemic and cost of living crisis.