Exeter College has offered its state-of-the-art industrial kitchen facilities to Food4Heroes; a charity that provides free nutritious meals to frontline NHS staff during the Coronavirus pandemic.   

The College’s @34 training kitchens will now be in use, providing nutritionally balanced, free meals to NHS staff. These meals will include a vegetarian and a meat option and allergens will be listed on the dishes provided. Meals distributed to Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital will be in microwavable containers for NHS staff to take home.  

Food4Heroes launched in response to the Coronavirus crisis when footage emerged of NHS workers finishing long shifts and finding limited stocks available in their local supermarket. Since then, Food4Heroes has worked around the country with NHS Trusts to set up initiatives to support frontline NHS staff with nutritious microwaveable meals.   

The @34 kitchens have the facilities to provide up to 200 meals a day, and Food4Heroes will be working with the NHS Trust to make sure they’re producing the correct volume of food to meet demand. Food4Heroes will also be working with other local, certified suppliers with a minimum 4* food hygiene rating to support catering, if required.   

How you can help  

For the Exeter College kitchen to operate successfully as part of this effort, Food4Heroes is now looking for volunteers with a minimum of a Level 2 Food Hygiene Certificate to help prepare the food in the kitchen. Ideally, chefs would be able to commit to producing two meals a week. However, this could alter depending on how many volunteers and businesses come forward to support Food4Heroes.   

Details and support for chefs will be available once the process is finalised. 

To help with Food4Heroes at Exeter College, contact Steve Tipping on steve@food4heroes.co.uk for further details.   

Donate to Food4Heroes  

To keep this free for all frontline NHS staff, Food4Heroes is seeking donations to cover the costs of ingredients, travel and other unavoidable expenses. Donations can be made to specific regions, ensuring that local money is spent on local NHS support. You can find additional details on the Food4Heroes website. Donations for the South West are being raised on Crowdfunder here. 

Supporting the NHS  

Exeter College is helping to support those working in the NHS with PPE equipment distributed from the College’s Maths and Science Centre. The production of face shields is also underway in association with PPE4Exeter, a community organisation leading on the creation and distribution of vital PPE equipment to community-based health and care workers.     

Accommodation is also available for NHS staff to use at the College’s Clock Tower Boarding House.