CDL BACKS CHRISTMAS FOOD APPEAL

A group of volunteers from software house, CDL, on King’s Reach Road in Stockport, will be temporarily swapping binary code for Brussels sprouts as they get into the Christmas spirit to help the local branch of the national food distribution charity, FareShare North West, deliver festive food supplies to people in the local community who need them.  

For each of the past four years, FareShare NW has received around 35 tonnes of food from the voluntary organisation, The Buckingham Emergency Food Appeal (BEFA), at Christmas time. This sizeable donation then requires redistributing over a two to three day period, prior to the big event, to the local and regional beneficiary organisations who come to collect it – which is where CDL comes in.

     As part of the CDL100, a scheme for
     volunteering in the community, people from
     across the company have been signing up for
     shifts working as Warehouse Assistants at the
     charity’s North West food collection depot in the
     week before Christmas.

     Helen Brennan, who is responsible for CSR
     initiatives at CDL, said:

    “It’s great to see so many people choosing to
     take part in the Christmas Food Appeal. CDL is
     strongly committed to making a positive
     difference in the local community, and to
     supporting the positive work of charitable
    organisations such as EMERGE and its
Above: CDL Staff supporting the Christmas food appeal  FareShare operations.” 

As well as helping to pick orders, fill vegetable parcels and load collections into vehicles, people at CDL are also taking part in the company’s food drive initiative: ‘Bring in a Tin’ week. Any contribution is of benefit as FareShare recently announced that it has seen a 20% rise in the number of people it is feeding, from 29,500 a year to 35,000.  

FareShare NW is run by partner organisation, EMERGE 3Rs, an environmental charity which specialises in waste reduction, reuse and recycling. CDL use services of the charity’s social enterprise arm, EMERGE Recycling, for all its waste recycling.

Lucy Danger, Executive Director at EMERGE, said:

“EMERGE is absolutely delighted to have secured CDL’s support for our work with FareShare, diverting in-date food which would otherwise have been wasted, to organisations helping those in need. This charitable work complements EMERGE’s corporate objectives perfectly and it’s heartening to have our key customers, like CDL, actively involved in helping others who are less fortunate – particularly at Christmas.”