August 19, 2019 5.19 pm This story is over 55 months old

Oliver! musical audiences gift food bank’s biggest ever donation

So much food, glorious food!
They've collected a mountain of food.

Audience members at the sold-out Oliver! shows managed to gift the biggest ever single donation to a Lincoln food bank.

The team behind the community production sent out an appeal with The Lincolnite asking for anyone going to the show to bring with them a single item of food.

Every other day for the last couple of weeks, they pulled up with a truck full of food and unloaded the donations at Lincoln Foodbank’s warehouse.

The audiences donated just under four tonnes of food in total.

It has even sparked a wave of similar pledges from other theatre companies in Lincoln, Grimsby and in the West Midlands.

Amy Colley, Lincoln Foodbank coordinator, told The Lincolnite that it was the biggest single donation by about a tonne.

“We’re just really grateful,” she said. “It’s felt like a real community effort and took a full team but this will make a big difference for people.

“This is a lot of food but it all goes back out again to people in need really quickly. We just hope that people will keep donation because it helps a lot.”

The cast and crew of Oliver! has also donated money to the food bank and to Nomad Trust towards their new homeless shelter.

Ben Poole, Director at The Starring Lincoln Theatre Company, said: “When we heard that it could be the biggest ever donation it gave us the motivation to keep going.

“It’s around about two and a half months worth of food, I don’t think that we could ask for much more than that.”

The food bank previously told The Lincolnite that it could be forced to close down after it saw a surge in demand in calls for help.

Another food bank in the city, the Lincoln Community Larder is marking 30 years of helping those in need this August.