A foodbank which announced a closure on Monday (September 19) for Queen Elizabeth II's funeral has announced that it will open after all. The U-turn came when volunteers stepped in to keep the vital service going.
Wimbledon Foodbank in South London tweeted on Tuesday (September 13) that it would be closing for the bank holiday which has been decreed to mark the state funeral of the late monarch.
In a post, it said: "Our condolences go out to the Royal family at this sad time. All food bank hubs will be closed on Monday 19th September due to funeral.
"We will reopen from Tuesday 20th Sept."
After concern from tweeters, it added that bank holidays are a day on which the foodbank does close as standard, tweeting: "We do normally close on bank holidays and as this is now a bank holiday we have decided to allow our staff and workers the opportunity to show their respects."
It then added :"We will however be available for collections on Saturday and Tuesday as usual and will be making all of our clients aware to ensure they are cared for. Thank you for all of your concern."
Then came something of a backlash, as one tweeter Nick @Nick_BPSS said: "Do vulnerable people stop needing food on bank holidays?"
Another, Bronte Schiltz @BronteSchiltz, asked: "I find it very hard to believe all of your volunteers want to watch the funeral. Have you asked them?"
Others added their support to the foodbank, with Rhys Davies @Hendre94 tweeting: "One of the silliest twitter pile-ons we’ve seen. Sorry that you’ve been a victim of it. Thank you for all that you do."
There was a new post an hour later following the concern online. At around 5pm, Wimbledon Foodbank tweeted that it had changed its position due to "overwhelming support".
Thanks to the publicity about the closure, it tweeted "we now have volunteers to run our Monday session as usual", they said. It also asked people to note that they are volunteer and charity-run.
The post read: "UPDATE: Due to the overwhelming support we have received we now have volunteers to run our Monday session as usual. As a reminder we are not a government service and run solely on peoples [sic] donations of time, money and food."
It added that donations are welcome: "If you would like to donate food the centre will be open for donations Monday to Friday: 8am to 5pm at 76 Kingston Road, Wimbledon, SW191LA."
