Woodbridge Food Bank, run by the Woodbridge Salvation Army, has received a welcome boost of £500 thanks to the Co-op.

The donation of £250, which was subsequently matched by running club the Woodbridge Shufflers, brings the total donation to £500. The money will go towards helping around 26 local families that would otherwise struggle to afford food.

The £250 was originally paid by the Co-op to the Shufflers to sponsor this year’s Woodbridge Round the Town 10K, which has since been cancelled due to the Coronavirus outbreak. Having being offered a refund, the Co-op generously opted to donate instead.

Major Alan Hill, of The Salvation Army in Woodbridge, said: “As we witness a greater demand for emergency food, this donation is very welcome, particularly at Easter time. From redundancy and illness to a difficulty simply going shopping for food, local families are facing increasingly hard times, and that’s where we can help.

Dave Alley, race director for The Woodbridge Shufflers, said:

“We were delighted to hear of the Co-op’s generosity and were pleased to match their donation. The Woodbridge Round The Town race is at heart a charitable enterprise, giving over 10,000 per year to charity. So while this year’s race is on hold, we’re pleased to help in what small way we can during these challenging times.”

For details about the Woodbridge Food Bank, Contact Major Alan Hill email: alan.hill@salvationarmy.org.uk or phone 07562007125

For information about the Woodbridge Shufflers 10K race, planned for 2021, visit https://woodbridgeshufflers.org.uk/our-races/woodbridge-10k

The Woodbridge 10K Road Races, due to open for entries this Saturday 14th March at noon, will be delayed as a precautionary measure as fears about the spread of Coronavirus continue.

Race event organisers, The Woodbridge Shufflers Running Club, hope that the race will take place as planned on Sunday 17th May, but are monitoring the situation carefully. Dave Alley, Race Director, said: 

“We’re all wondering how the Coronavirus outbreak is going to impact our day to day lives, and for the Shufflers, this means thinking ahead to the Woodbridge 10K. 

We’re hoping that the race will be able to go ahead as planned, but at the moment we just don’t know. We’re therefore delaying our race entries, so we won’t open as planned on 14th March.  

In the meantime, we’re keeping a close watch on the situation, and we are hoping to be able to open entries in April.  But we will follow government advice, which may mean that we have to postpone the race (and entries). We appreciate that runners won’t want to miss out on the chance to race, so please be assured that we will keep our Facebook page up to date with any news, as well as the FAQ page on our website.

We’re sorry that we have had to take this step, but we think it’s important to manage the expectations of our running community. The Woodbridge 10K is run entirely by volunteers, and we trust that everyone involved will bear with us as we work towards the best outcome.”

For the latest news about the 10K, including the possible revised registration date, please follow the Woodbridge 10K Facebook page and the Woodbridge Shufflers website.

Every year the club’s 10K race raises money for charities. Club members nominations are put forward to the AGM where whole club votes to select the most popular 5 .

We are very excited to report that the 5 charities that got the most votes are as follows:

• Jetty Lane : Community, youth and arts center in Woodbridge
• Seckford Almhouses chapel : Renovation of this historic building, providing disabled access etc
• Project 21 : A charity changing the lives of people with Down’s Syndrome in East Anglia
• 4yp : Suffolk Young People’s Health Project
• Motor Neuron Disease Association: Improving care and support for people with MND

OK …. not really but this was a spectacularly wet Sunday run ! Kudos to all the hard core runners who didn’t let the thought of getting their feet wet stop them !

Have a look at the Woodbridge 10k Road Race page, we’ve started the planning,  the date is confirmed as 17th May,  …. very excited to leak the news that  it looks like we’ll have a Samba Band encouraging our runners this year. We are trying to make this year our greenest event so far… more on that later.