BBC Local Radio: helping the community

When Thornaby Foodbank was broken into twice in one weekend, the shelves were left bare and volunteers were worried they wouldn’t have enough supplies to open.

It was heart-breaking to see an organisation that does so much good in such difficult circumstances be left with nothing.

BBC Tees’ tag line is ‘Proud of where we live’ and we see time and time again that people here are only too keen to offer help when they can.

So we not only wanted to cover the story but make an impact - and make it easier for local people to help too.

Reporter Adam Clarkson had spotted the story initially, and assistant editor Sarah Carter worked over the weekend to pull a campaign together to restock the foodbank with supplies.

The campaign was launched on the Monday morning - the Breakfast team did a great job of getting the story on air, with collection points set up across the area and ready to go.

Local businesses stepped to act as collection points - four pubs, two coffee shops and a theatre - as well BBC Tees reception in Middlesbrough.

The donations came in thick and fast - with two businesses calling the same day to say the boxes they’d been given were full. People were coming into our reception to check what was needed, and then going to Sainsbury’s nearby to buy the right items.

We even had donations from another local charity which had surplus, building site workers who put together a big box of tea and coffee, and more than 70 eggs from a woman who has her own chickens!

As I travelled round the patch to collect the donations people continually spoke about community spirit, and asked if there was more they could do - nothing was too much trouble.

It was an amazing example of community spirit and of how BBC Local Radio can spread the word to help in a crisis.

BBC Tees Breakfast presenters Neil Green and Amy Oakden, and Drive’s Gary Philipson needed two cars to take the donations to Thornaby Baptist Church.

As we opened the boots, we were met by some emotional volunteers. Lesley Collinson, who runs the foodbank, later told me that we had gone far beyond what they had expected and that they were very grateful and impressed by our team.

It was a real demonstration of the role BBC Local Radio can have, not just in sharing information but bringing people together and being a focus for them to get involved in improving where they live.