South Yorkshire's Fosters Bakery wins national award for its help with vaccination delivery

South Yorkshire's Fosters Bakery has been named the overall winner of the Tiptree World Bread Awards after providing invaluable assistance in helping deliver Covid-19 vaccines.

John Foster, Managing Director of Fosters Bakery in Mapplewell near Barnsley was lauded for helping provide vehicles and personnel to help deliver vaccine does around his local area.

The speed and scale of the vaccine roll out meant there were thousands of doses needed at every GP practice in Barnsley. John and his team stepped forward to assist: providing numerous vehicles and staff to help deliver the vaccine doses to the practices.

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For a few days every week, over a period of six weeks, up to five Fosters vehicles and drivers were distributing vaccines all over the borough. Each day involved 20 - 30 deliveries, across a 20-mile-radius.

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This was all at short notice and in addition to the standard business of the family-run bakery, which has operated in Mapplewell for over 65 years.

Initially, the NHS doubted Fosters’ capability until John Foster reassured them that "a vaccine is like a cream cake; it requires a fragile, temperature-sensitive, time-critical delivery, and Fosters have been doing those for over 50 years".

"As a direct result of Fosters’ intervention we were able to create a Barnsley-wide delivery schedule that enabled all Practices to vaccinate their patients." said James Barker, Chief Executive Officer of Barnsley Healthcare Federation.

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"In real terms this meant we could offer 37 local vaccination sites across the town, it is due to the efforts of the Fosters team that this was possible."

"Over 75% of Barnsley residents have been vaccinated by GP Practices, which is an outstanding achievement," continues Mr Barker.

"The Fosters team deserves full recognition for the role they played in making this happen."

The judges were blown away by John’s efforts. ‘Like many of our nominees, John has demonstrated a tremendous resilience when faced with life’s challenges; in this case a very serious illness. His work and support for the NHS during the lockdown was exemplary.’ said Scott Goodfellow, Joint Managing Director, Tiptree, ‘What made John the outstanding candidate was the personal attention to service and care that he gives to each and every customer.’

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In normal times, the Tiptree World Bread Awards celebrate the bread; loaves from around the country would be delivered for assessment by a panel of esteemed judges. Building on the great success of last year, the Awards once again celebrated the UK’s Bread Heroes - the people behind the loaves: from farmers and millers, to bakers and educators.