Meet the Mansfield high-flyer at heart of major £100,000 food bank scheme

Lauren Warner, 28, an international transport planner at Mansfield’s Taylor’s Transport, has her work cut out.

She is at the centre of operations for Rotary4Foodbanks, which is providing vital supplies to more than 50 foodbanks in the East Midlands region.

Now, with supermarket giant Morrisons getting involved in the ground-breaking scheme, she is set to get even busier.

Lauren said: “I have not been furloughed throughout the Covid crisis and was only too happy to take on the extra work involved in managing the distribution of food to food banks.

"At Taylor’s, we’ve always tried to give back to the community and this is such a practical way of using our expertise to meet a real need.”

Rotary4Foodbanks, which is already distributing £100,000 worth of staple foods like tea, coffee, cereals and tinned fruit, now works with supermarket giant Morrisons’ bulk buy scheme, set up specifically to help charities.

Lauren was on hand to receive the first Morrisons delivery of nearly 28,000 items of food, which recently arrived at Taylor’s Huthwaite distribution centre.

Lauren, who lives with her partner in Mansfield, is no stranger to charity endeavours.

Having already completed a sky-dive in support of the John Eastwood Hospice in Sutton-in-Ashfield, where her grandfather spent his final days, she is planning a wing-walk early next year to raise funds for research into endometriosis.

She said: “Right now though, my focus is on working with Rotary4Foodbanks to ensure that no-one goes hungry as the post-Covid recession hits more and more families in our region.”

Donate to the campaign at www.justgiving.com/campaign/rotary4foodbanks.