Community Stars award for Penzance caring support service

Two community champions from Penzance have been awarded a Community Stars award for setting up an organisation designed to tackle food poverty.

Starting from her house in Penzance, Julia Tucker, along with friend Mo Williams, set up the support service Food for Families Penzance CIC in 2018 where they were willing to put others first by taking calls 24 hours of the day.

Since then, it has gone from strength to strength. With Covid-19 and the hardship that it has brought to many families, Julia and Mo have worked tirelessly to support many local families in need.  

And their efforts have been rewarded after they won one of two group awards in our Community Stars awards – a competition to celebrate unsung heroes across the South West.

Mo said: “We’re absolutely over the moon, we’ve never won anything like this, so it makes a change to be noticed.”

The pair set up a commercial basement free of charge to store food and freezers to start a best before shop, in the heart of one of LiveWest’s largest Penzance neighbourhoods.  

They then contacted local businesses and supermarkets to access food close to its sell by date, in a bid to reduce food waste and get the food which would have seen food thrown away to landfill out to people who need it.

Julia said: “It's not that these things aren’t needed in the community. Since COVID-19, everybody's been obviously up in the air, with mental health, lack of food because of benefits being stopped or for whatever reason. Everybody's just having a tough time and I think now things are starting to settle.”

Mo also used the service herself for a short while before going on to become a director along with Julia.

Not only have they done their emergency food parcels, which can also contain other household items, Julia and Mo were given the use of Penzance Youth Hostel’s kitchen, where they prepared home cooked food for families at a reduced cost so those without the financial means can access a hot meal. 

Now, with the help of a chef, they offer frozen food packages instead. They work with lots of local supermarkets so are also helping the environment by reducing waste.

Julia has put a Community Chest outside her home with food in and people can come help themselves to items from there.

Julia added: “People don't see what goes on in the background. They don't see, for example over 400 hundred miles of petrol that we do in a week. They don't see us going to pick up food, bringing it in and having to sort it and having to distribute it. People don't see that they just see us turn up with the food and that's it. 

“But what we do for us to get that food is quite a lot. You know, we have to do a lot of things to get this.

“We just haven't stopped but it's all worth it in the end. To see the gratefulness and people’s attitude when you do drop them off it’s amazing.”

In the run up to Christmas 2020, they prepared around 250 Christmas boxes for families.

From the start of the first lockdown, they have helped over 2,000 people who have either approached them or been referred to them by professional agencies.

We provided a grant from a legacy funding to initially get the scheme up and running and then some further financial assistance during lockdown to ensure it could help as many people as possible. 

Keri Millar, our Community Connector for West Cornwall, said: “I’m delighted Food for Families have won the group Community Award which highlights their work and dedication to help others in their community.”

“They have not only helped people with food parcels but made sure families have had a hot meal and somewhere to turn to during what has been a difficult time for so many people.”

“This award is much deserved for all their hard work and their resilience to go out their way to improve the lives of others.” 

“It has been great to support them throughout this and that we could provide a grant to make sure they could keep doing their fantastic work that supports our residents in Penzance. I hope it will continue.”