Franklins Solicitors LLP has donated pallets with essential food and supplies worth a retail value of £20,000 to eight food banks across Milton Keynes and Buckinghamshire. The pallets will provide food and essential items to hundreds of local families living in poverty.

As sponsors of the SME Milton Keynes and Buckinghamshire Business Awards, Franklins had the opportunity to provide promotional giveaways to guests at the awards. Rather than do this, they took the decision to invest in food pallets to help struggling adults and children. In partnership with His Church, a food redistribution charity, during May and June they delivered pallets to the following local charities:

Aylesbury Vineyard Church, One Nation, One Can Trust, Baby Basics, MK Food Bank, Milton Keynes Community Fridge, The Bus Shelter MK and MK Melting Pot.

The charities were delighted to receive the food pallets and explained the difference they would make. Melanie Lewis from Baby Basics, one of the charities who received a donation commented:

‘This really is an absolutely perfect donation for us. Thank you to Franklins Solicitors and His Church. Long may they continue being able to support the people who need us.’

Speaking about the decision to donate food pallets instead of corporate giveaways, Andrea Smith, Partner at Franklins Solicitors said:

‘The cost of living crisis has affected everyone, especially lower income families. We wanted to play our part in making a difference and decided the money we would have invested into corporate giveaways would be better spent on supplies to help feed our local communities.”

Richard Humphrey, Director of Operations at His Church Charity explained more about the difference the donations have made:

‘We were absolutely delighted when Franklins decided to mark their 40th Anniversary celebrations by making a contribution towards the admin and logistics costs associated with our charitable redistributions. This generous donation enabled His Church to distribute over 10,000 meals to vulnerable people in the Milton Keynes and Buckinghamshire areas. Kudos to Franklins for reallocating a budget for corporate giveaways, in order to give meaningful support to the local community, this is truly commendable social responsibility and I hope their example will inspire other businesses to follow suit.’

As a result of this initiative, MK Food Reach has been set up to offer ongoing support to help with the local food crisis. Every time £10,000 is raised – enough to fill an artic lorry with 26 pallets of food (retail value of approximately £52,000) a lorry will bring the much needed food to the City for distribution. To get involved, visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/mk-food-reach  or email mkfoodreach@outlook.com

Last week, Franklins donated two mixed pallets of food to local charities Northampton Town FC Community Trust and MK Food Bank through a partnership with His Church Charity.  Northampton Town FC Community Trust work with a number of small food banks in the local area and will distribute the pallet directly via their Easter Holiday hunger projects and through the Weston Favell Centre Foodbank.  

Phillip Smith, CEO of the Northampton Town FC Community Trust, said “We are extremely grateful to both Franklins Solicitors for funding and His Church for delivering this amazingly generous food donation. Everyone should have access to good food but unfortunately, increasingly we know this isn’t always the case. This donation will be a fantastic help to enable us to support families and individuals across Northamptonshire at this challenging time.”

In Milton Keynes, the MK Food Bank have teamed up with MK Council to launch Food Bank Xtra in order to meet the increase in demand caused by the Coronavirus pandemic.

“We are so grateful to Franklins and His Church for the fabulous donation of much need food delivered last week. MK Food Bank has seen an unprecedented increase in demand for its emergency food parcels over the last year – in 2020 we helped over 2,500 more households than in the previous year, giving out 27,500 parcels altogether. And it’s thanks to incredible donations from the community that we’re able to carry on helping everyone who needs us. On behalf of everyone here, a huge thank you to for your generosity and community spirit.” – Louisa Hobbs, Operations Manager at MK Food Bank.

Richard Humphrey, Director of Operations at His Church who organised and facilitated the delivery of the pallets said “It’s a wonderful gesture for Franklins Solicitors to sponsor these mixed food pallets. Franklins’ generosity in covering our administration and logistics costs has enabled His Church to provide over £4,000 worth of food to support a number of fantastic front-line Charities, who are making a big difference in Northampton and Milton Keynes. A huge thank you to all the Franklins staff who went without Easter Eggs this year to support families who have been made vulnerable by the current crisis.”

Franklins are delighted to have been able to help a number of individuals and families through local charities in the community this Easter.