McColl’s has pledged to provide essential food and goods to staff at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) for free.
As GOSH increases its number of hospital beds and capacity to help free up other London hospitals to focus on treating coronavirus patients, McColl’s is providing store-cupboard and fridge essentials to GOSH staff to take home after a day’s shift.
This includes a range of goods including sandwiches, bread, milk, eggs, biscuits, tea and coffee.
This support builds on McColl’s charity partnership with Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity (GOSH Charity), launched in October 2019. The partnership aims to raise £1m over the next three years to help fund the refurbishment of parent accommodation, just across the road from GOSH, which will help bring families closer together when a child is receiving treatment. The initiative has raised around £250,000 to date.
McColl’s is also providing coffee free of charge for all NHS workers, available from its in-store Costa Coffee, Lavazza and Nescafe machines.
Jonathan Miller, McColl’s Chief Executive, said: “We are incredibly proud to be supporting GOSH as it increases its capacity to help London hospitals to focus on treating coronavirus patients. Our colleagues care greatly about supporting their local communities and we know many families across the UK rely on the excellent, specialist care provided by GOSH, now more so than ever. We are delighted we can support the staff by providing essential food and goods to take home after a day’s shift.
Miller also praised McColl’s staff “who are working incredibly hard to keep the neighbourhood communities we serve supplied with the food, goods and services they need on a daily basis”.
He added: “I am immensely proud of some of the local initiatives that individual stores have implemented, from reserving and managing pre-order and pick-up for NHS workers to reaching out and safely delivering goods to elderly and vulnerable customers.”
