Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation have hailed community heroes who went the extra mile during the height of the Covid pandemic.

The foundation are showcasing some of the amazing work that took place across the town during the last two years.

The Heritage Foundation granted around £190K to projects and charities in Letchworth Garden City since March 2020.

The foundation first spoke to the Best Before Café who rescue surplus food and redistribute the stock from their shop in Garden Square Shopping Centre.

This project was awarded £5k in 2020 from the Heritage Foundation to help them purchase a van so they could make food deliveries during lockdown.

Suzy Holding, the Project Lead at Best Before Café who said: "The van ferries surplus food from supermarkets to the shop four nights a week, and each Thursday we take it to Milton Keynes to fill it up with fresh produce.

"We drop to food stalls most Fridays in Letchworth, Hitchin and Baldock and we use it for deliveries to the Letchworth Foodbank.

"Thank you to everyone who played a part in acquiring the van. It is a proper part of the team and works wholeheartedly for the community."

The van also helped them to be able to pick up more surplus stock from suppliers.

These grants support a range of needs such as food provision, education, mental health, and victim support.

Head of Charitable Projects and Partnerships at the Heritage Foundation, Alastair Stewart added: "We realised how a grant towards a van would enable the Best Before Café to continue to reduce food going to landfill and create more efficient use of their volunteers time.

"The energy and passion of the group is amazing, and the van has proved to be a real asset over the past 18 months, helping the group to operate flexibly during particularly challenging times.

"We are privileged to be able to present this story."

Applications for grants for 2021 are now closed but if you wish to discuss your idea, project, or group, please visit Letchworth.com/grants for more information.

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