'Phenomenal' donations as hundreds turn out for Southsea parkrun in support of St Mag’s pantry

Several hundred visitors and runners turned out to participate in the Southsea parkrun, a free weekly 5k where participants can walk, jog, or run.

However this week, in support of the nationwide Food Bank Run coined by Fareham Running Club, the community event decided to collect for a Southsea-based pantry at St Margaret's Community Church. Parkrun volunteer and runner, Eileen Kenyon, contacted St Mag’s Pantry and sent out social media posts, encouraging runners to get involved and bring an item of food.

Lauren Broughton, Pantry coordinator, came to help on the day. She said: ‘We were thrilled to get Eileen’s email, it’s not often people say we’ve got lots of food, we’re going to collect it, and get it to you! This is a phenomenal donation, we brought down more crates than we were expecting to use and we’ve used all of them! It’s amazing, I can pick up really staple items but it’s the variety we get from the public which is great. Even though you’re shopping in a Pantry, it doesn't mean you don’t appreciate interesting food.

‘We are getting applications every week to join us, luckily at the minute we’re not looking at capping any numbers but we can only do that because of these kind of donations. The community round here has always been excellent.’

SEE ALSO: The Food Bank Run founded by Fareham Running Club is gaining pace in 2023

Eileen, from Southsea, added: ‘The parkrun team have all helped, some have provided posters some have done IT work, it’s been great. We’ve been so pleased with the success that we hope to do it again.’

Daniel Del Piccolo, from Southsea, contributed food and is part of a separate running group which regularly donates to food banks in the local area.

‘We wanted to come down and give a few tins. We’ve been into the pantry, and seen all the food and the families walking in, we know how much it’s needed,’ he said. On the Food Bank Run, he added: ‘To be able to run and donate food goes hand in hand, you can drop the food off and go and run or if you want to you can even carry the stuff on your back to a food bank!’