A care home ‘task force’ has been helping community food banks in a bid to support families in need this winter. It follows the introduction of food donation boxes at Colten Care’s 21 homes in Dorset, Hampshire, Wiltshire and West Sussex, and its Ringwood, Hampshire, head office. Staff, residents’ families and other donors have dropped off hundreds of essential items in line with what the banks say is most needed in each area. Some Colten team members have helped by taking collected donations direct to their nearest bank, seeing first-hand how food parcels are assembled, quarantined and distributed. Lorraine Bell, Home Manager at Colten’s Outstanding-rated Lymington dementia care home, Linden House, was left ‘humbled and in awe’ by her visit to the town’s New Forest Basics Bank.