A COMMUNITY food drive has surpassed another milestone as it continues to help residents facing difficult times.
The Woodley Food Drive, which started at the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, has now provided more than 500,000 items to people in and around the town.
The project, founded by Ronnie Goodberry, was set up as Woodley Volunteer for Covid-19 to support those shielding with food and medicine deliveries.
Mr Goodberry said: “The whole idea was going and getting and shopping for people, just to be a good neighbour really.”
It soon became clear to Mr Goodberry and his fellow volunteers that people were in need of more support than was initially expected.
He said: “When the furlough scheme started people were falling through the cracks as they were self employed or whatever the case may be.
“People started asking us for advice of where to get food from, so we were pointing them to food banks and then we thought, ‘well hang on, can’t we do something here?’”
It started with donations being dropped at various locations across Woodley before a decision was made to create a single drop-off point that could be used seven days a week.
Mr Goodberry wasn’t expecting the scheme to take off as quickly as it did and he was surprised at the number of donations he received.
“I didn’t think it would go down that well as people were struggling,” he explained.
“At one point I was getting one thousand items a day delivered, we had vehicles and lorries turning up.
“I was still taking things in at half nine or 10 o’clock at night. It was crazy.”
Once people realised the food drive was able to help, demand for the items also grew.
Since then demand has remained high and there has been a number of targeted campaigns as well as delivering specific items Easter and Christmas.
The first Christmas saw around 15,000 products distributed to hundreds of people.
The food drive has also helped staff on the frontline with one appeal to support an NHS nurse gaining significant traction.
Mr Goodberry said: “All of her money was going on bills so she couldn’t eat properly.
“Within 20 minutes of putting that appeal out I had nine bags of food delivered ready to help.”
Mr Goodberry thanked everyone who had helped quality check items and was keen to pay tribute to residents of Woodley and the surrounding areas of Wokingham, Reading and beyond who have shown an appetite to help complete strangers.
“Without them, none of it would have been possible,” he said.
“What these people have done is fantastic, honestly we couldn’t have done it without their support.”
In February last year, the group marked passing 200,000 items with a ceremony to celebrate donors and donations at an event held at the Oakwood Centre.
With 504,000 items delivered at the end of 2022, the target is now to reach one million.
Mr Goodberry said: “When we passed 100,000 items, I tongue-in-cheek said ‘lets go for a million’.
“Two years later we are at half a million, so why not go for it.”
