A renewed plea has gone out to Shotley peninsula commercial property owners to offer up space, which is urgently needed to ensure Suffolk's foodbanks can operate effectively and provide essential supplies to our communities.

Suffolk-based charity FareShare East of England needs to find new facilities close to Ipswich, to ensure that they can store and distribute vital food for the county's foodbanks and charities.

Due to the current lack of facilitates they are currently only able to provide a reduced service to communities. To do this they rely on volunteers to carry out their work and many of the volunteers are based in Ipswich which is why a site in the town is being sought after.

Anyone who owns and has spare storage facilities could be able to help preserve some of the vital food that Suffolk's most vulnerable residents need. FareShare East of England is looking at sites that meet the following criteria:

In or in very close proximity to Ipswich

Building in the region of 10,000 square feet

Building with height for racking of 6-7 metres

Must have access for articulated lorries

Office space for six people / workstations

415 voltage supply to building for refrigerators, etc. FareShare East of England is looking for a building on a formal rental basis for a five-year term rent at a rate of £5 to £10 per square foot but would also look at a 10-year term on the same rate, with a 5-year break clause. Chair of the Collaborative Communities Board, Chrissie Geeson said: "One of the things people in Suffolk do best is come together to support each other in times of need. This is one of those times. "We appreciate that few people will be in a position to help FareShare East of England with this very specific request, but we're hopeful that someone or a business in our community will come forward and make a real difference in our work to support the most vulnerable people in Suffolk. "Many foodbanks and charities are seeing an increased demand on services as those already experiencing financial difficulty are faced with increasing utility and food costs. "FareShare plays a pivotal role to ensure some of our Suffolk charities and community groups can meet the demand to provide nutritious food." The charity is currently supported by a depot in Nottingham via trips to Cambridge, but this is not sustainable in the long-term for serving Suffolk. As of February 2021, there were over 2,000 foodbanks in the UK, that are working hard to help feed our nation and Suffolk is proud to support such foodbanks. In 2020/21 FareShare East of England supported nearly 150 local charities and community groups and provided them with the equivalent of nearly four million meals. To offer a site please contact regional manager Mike Barrett, FareShare East of England via email on: [email protected] FareShare East of England is part of the UK-wide FareShare network of charitable food redistributors, made up of 18 independent organisations. Useful links for further information:

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