Salvation Army’s pizza night provides much needed relief in Street

In the Somerset town of Street, The Salvation Army has teamed up with a local pizza company to feed families hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

Territorial Envoys John and Louise Melia have been working with Pizza and Puppets to deliver pizzas to 40 families whose children attend Elmhurst junior school and Hindhayes infant school.

The pizza night on Thursday (April 16) is just one of the ways the Salvation Army has been getting food to housebound families over the past few weeks. Volunteers have been shopping for and providing food parcels thanks to support from local supermarkets, including Morrisons and Lidl. The community church has also secured £4,500 in funding to allow them to buy food at wholesale prices.

Louise said: “Based at the heart of the community, we are ideally placed to get food to those who need it most. But we couldn’t do it alone and are grateful to companies like Pizza and Puppets for their support.

The company has a mobile pizza oven that it takes to festivals during the summer. They asked if they could put on a pizza night to feed some of the people who come to us for food parcels and support.

“We were only too glad to accept their kind offer and we’ve been working with them to look at the logistics of making this happen as well as organising volunteer drivers to deliver the piping hot pizzas to families around the town.

“Coincidentally, there’s actually a pizza oven at one of the schools and one of the teachers used to work at a pizza parlour and so that has made this whole event that bit easier to arrange which is absolutely fantastic.”

The couple have been passing on food parcels that schools in the town are delivering to the families of vulnerable children and Louise and John have also secured a meeting with their local district council to discuss ongoing support for this important lifeline.

Louise added: “Being part of the Street community support group has given us the opportunity to be a part of all the work that is going on in our community. As well as the food parcels we are collecting and delivering prescriptions, doing shopping for those who cant get out, walking pets and trying our best to serve to serve the most vulnerable In our town in anyway that we can.”