Housing team's gift to food bank

A team from Hightown Housing Association were happy to donate 27kg of food to the foodbank to help local people get by over the festive season.

Hightown has been working in partnership with the Trussell Trust to help some of its residents when they experience moments of crisis.

Hightown’s Housing Officers are well placed to identify those who need help and can make sure residents have immediate access to food by making an on-the-spot referral to the foodbank.

Hightown’s senior housing officer Andrea Loomes said: “I’m on the front line so it would be me having conversations with tenants when they are struggling financially. I can assess the situation and judge if they would need help from charities like the food bank.

“Often people don’t know what help is out there or they are afraid of the stigma. But what is great about the foodbank is that people can collect the food discreetly, in normal carrier bags, and it can get them through a difficult time.”

The housing association’s staff wanted to make their own contribution to the foodbank, and their donations were recently collected by foodbank co-ordinator Heather Joy-Garrett, as well as Harvey Wright and Jack Burns, who are completing a Duke of Edinburgh scheme.

Other charitable activities by staff at Hightown have seen them raise £9,500 to help The Collett School in Hemel Hempstead build new classrooms to create an imaginative atmosphere to inspire their special needs pupils.

Hightown Housing Association Limited is a charitable housing association operating principally in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire providing a wide range of housing and support services for families and single people including people with special needs.

It manages more than 5,300 homes and employs over 800 staff. The housing association has an annual turnover of £60 million and a development programme that will deliver around 1,000 new affordable homes over the next two years.