University volunteers help to deliver 2,000 packed lunches a day to York Hospital staff

Volunteers from the University of York are helping to pack and deliver 2,000 packed lunches a day to frontline staff at York Hospital.

The university stepped in to help after the hospital’s own caterers diverted staff to patient services due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The items for the packed lunches are now delivered to the university’s Roger Kirk Centre every morning and then assembled into individual bags by a team of 10 volunteers.

The first batch was delivered today (Wednesday) with the food costs picked up by the hospital and Cucina looking after the deliveries.

The lunches contain a sandwich, piece of fruit, water, flapjack and bag of crisps.

Director of commercial services Jon Greenwood said the university was happy to help out.

He said:

• We have a mixture of student volunteers and some regular staff working together to get the lunches packed and delivered to frontline staff. It is a fantastic example of people coming together to help a great cause. 

  The NHS is doing a tremendous job in extremely challenging times and we can all play our part, however small.

Mr Greenwood said the operation would be in place for the next 10 weeks.