British egg farmers have joined a new initiative that provides food boxes for NHS workers and free breakfasts for hospital staff.
The HelpNHSHeroes project seeks to give NHS workers food boxes designed to feed a family of four for two days.
They can be ordered through a new app and will be available to collect at the end of shifts.
The scheme has been trialled at pop-up shops in two NHS hospitals, with farmers donating eggs for free while the project got underway, and will now be rolled out further.
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A pop-up cafe is also providing breakfast free of charge for shift workers on back-to-back shifts.
HelpForHeroes is now planning to scale up to national distribution following the initial trial and interest from more than 40 hospitals across the UK.
Food boxes will be sold at cost price, for £30, the organisation said.
Eggs will be included in the boxes and marketed at cost price as the scheme is rolled out.
NHS Heroes
Jason Mawer, founder of HelpNHSHeroes, says: “We started this initiative when we saw our hardworking NHS staff were unable to get hold of basic food items after their gruelling shifts.
“The support from British Lion eggs to help make the initial trials a success has been invaluable with universally positive feedback from NHS workers.
“We are now in a position to start rolling out the scheme across the UK.”
‘Vital initiative’
Andrew Joret, British Egg Industry Council chairman, says: “HelpNHSHeroes is a vital initiative to help give NHS workers easy access to food at their place of work, to feed their families.
“We are delighted that Lion eggs can play a part in easing the load on our essential workers and we are keen to support the campaign as it rolls out to more hospitals.”
