The guiding force behind the Hub @ BA15 is retiring after 8 almost years of selfless voluntary service.
Avril Clarke was one of the founding persons of the Hub and Foodbank in Bradford on Avon back in 2014 when a group of charitable minded people got together and decided to set up a Foodbank in Bradford on Avon. It officially opened in March 2015 with Avril as Co-ordinator.
They managed to rent the empty Lloyds bank building from the Diocese of the Catholic Church and created, what is now, a thriving Community Hub. Once simply a Foodbank, it now offers so much more to the whole area encompassing Winsley, South Wraxall, Trowbridge, and Studeley Green. There is the Debt Advice service, help with benefits applications and appeals, a drop in centre for sign posting and advice, and a hot lunch on Thursdays for anyone who needs it throughout the winter months. It also offers a space for meetings for the AA, CA, Ukranian refugees and Julian House Homeless Project.
The warmth and welcome has been created and developed in large part, by the energy, drive and commitment of Avril. She has extended the Foodbank offering to 10 local schools which now receive around 125 food parcels 4 times a year. The Christmas box and bag of goodies being a mammoth logistical exercise relying on volunteer drivers and packers.
Meanwhile the voucher system for food parcels now includes 81 agencies including Selwood Housing, Rough Sleepers Team, Wiltshire, Julian House, The Medical Centre. Avril has been the guiding light in this vast development of the Hub’s reach.
Her service to the community will be sadly missed. From a kind chat and cup of tea with the lonely or distressed, to her tireless dedication to inclusivity of all people in need, she will be a hard act to follow.