THE staff at Somerset Passenger Solutions were busy on Monday, December 19, making a huge delivery to The Trussell Trust Foodbank in Bridgwater.

Finance assistant Katrina Cook and senior union rep Chris Brittan from SPS were just some of the SPS staff who teamed up with the Trussell Trust Foodbank team.

A spokesperson from the foodbank said: "Christmas is a time for giving and we are thankful to all at SPS who kindly donated items for this important community charity."

"The soaring cost of living means more and more people are being forced to use this support. During what is likely to be the most challenging winter that the foodbank has ever faced, we were privileged to help with this company-wide appeal."

Emma Warr, communications manager, said: “The foodbanks will face their toughest winter yet as for the first time ever, they are giving out more food than is being donated.

"We were thrilled with the amount of donations we received from SPS colleagues after rolling the appeal out across the company. We hope our delivery will help to meet the increased need to keep food banks going this winter”.

If you would like to donate, please use the link below to find your nearest food bank – https://lnkd.in/gdt8WVC.

Somerset Passenger Solutions was formed in 2016 as a joint venture between First Group and JJP Holdings, to serve the passenger transport needs of the largest construction project in Europe – Hinkley Point C. 

In October 2021, First Group completed purchase to take full control of SPS.

Since start up SPS has seen rapid growth making it one of the fastest growing businesses in the Southwest.

Starting with 10 employees and 8 vehicles, today we employ 442 people with 148 vehicles and transport 20,000 weekday passenger journeys in a 24-hour period. This continues to grow weekly.

Trussell Trust support a nationwide network of food banks and provide emergency food and support to people locked in poverty, and campaign for change to end the need for food banks in the UK.

In the UK, more than 14 million people are living in poverty – including 4.5 million children.

A spokesperson from Trussell Trust said: "We support more than 1,200 food bank centres in the UK to provide a minimum of three days’ nutritionally-balanced emergency food to people who have been referred in crisis, as well as support to help people resolve the crises they face."