Inverness church transformed into grocery distribution warehouse for food project
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An Inverness church found itself transformed into a grocery distribution warehouse for a food project which delivered hampers to local families this Christmas.
The Barn Church at Culloden joined forces with Kings Inverness, Smithton Church, and Culloden-Balloch Baptist Church for Food4Good@Christmas 2020.
The project delivered 200 hampers, having raised more than £5500 through individual donations.
Each hamper contained more than 50 non-perishable food items plus £10 vouchers to spend at AI Quality Butchers and Adopt A Child community charity shop in Culloden and a canvas bag for life.
Rev Mike Robertson, minister at the Barn Church, along with the Barn’s Food4Good co-ordinator Billy Davis, and GoodNess project co-ordinator Becky Wilson, set up and stocked the conveyor-belt system where volunteers filled boxes for delivery to local schools, groups and families.
"The need for food support was already increasing before Covid-19 and will likely continue," Mr Robertson said.
"It seemed scandalous before but now it’s simply a reality along with many other changed realities as a result of Covid.
"However, time and again this year, I’ve been so encouraged to see that when many come together as one, when ‘we’re in this together’ is an act and not just a platitude, the impossible becomes possible and everyone benefits."
Mr Robertson thanked everyone for their support.
He also said putting together the hampers at the Barn Church was, in some ways, a poignant expression of the building’s original purpose as it was built as a tithe barn for Culloden Estate in 1729.
It is the second year running for the project.
"After the success of last year’s hamper initiative, we felt confident we’d learned a lot about how to do it well, and increase the scale for future years,” he said.
"However, doing so in the middle of a global pandemic brought a new set of challenges, not least in terms of logistics and safety.
"Given the circumstances, the increased level of support to make this possible has been overwhelming. The prospect of raising more money, support, providing more hampers, and items, may have seemed impossible.
"Yet, the fact that it all came together with a near ‘to the penny’ match on income and expenditure is genuinely miraculous."
The project has also been supported by Highland Council in partnership with FareShare, Morrison’s, the Co-op, Tesco, Aldi, Transforming Lives for Good and Culloden Surgery.
Related story: Christmas carols go online as churches in Inverness join forces
