Midlothian Parish Church and Food Bank have faith in reliable broadband support from GoFibre

Midlothian locals have been provided with a vital new broadband connection this Christmas to ensure that key community hubs can provide essential services over the festive period and beyond.

Gorebridge Parish Church and Midlothian Food Bank have levelled up their digital connectivity with ultra fast full fibre from Scottish independent broadband provider, GoFibre, allowing the groups to provide much needed support to the most vulnerable within the community.

Both organisations now have a fast and stable connection since switching to GoFibre, with the new, reliable service proving essential to the church and the food bank in meeting the needs of parishioners and those facing food poverty alike. The Wi-Fi is available to all community groups who use the building, with a QR code available to connect new users seamlessly to the Wi-Fi.

Gorebridge Parish Church is home to Midlothian Food Bank, a separate charity that shares the church space. Working on a referral basis with the majority coming through online, the team has so far this year experienced a spike of over 500 submissions during the festive period, and so relies on high-speed broadband to ensure no one is missed. All referrals must be inputted into an online central database, and if broadband connection drops, this causes delays in getting food to those in need.

The food bank is a fundamental community resource, which has been running since 2013, providing support for people throughout Midlothian with referrals coming from a range of agencies in the region including Citizen’s Advice, local schools and the NHS.

Supporting around 7,500 people a year, Midlothian Food Bank also provides hot lunches on a Wednesday for over 65s, and a community meal on Thursdays for around 35 people. To further support the food bank, GoFibre has pledged £100 of support to go directly to serving the community.

Additionally, Gorebridge Parish Church relies on strong connectivity for weekly services as well as its on-demand streaming provision. Previously, such services were affected with intermittent broadband making it difficult to run smoothly.

“It’s been night and day, compared with our previous provider,” said Liam Somerville, who oversees all things tech-related at the Parish Church.

“The connection is really stable, it never lets us down and the customer service has been really good so it’s absolutely made our job an awful lot easier. It’s reliable, and we can guarantee everything will be working on a Sunday.”

Yvette Hennessey, Manager of Midlothian Food Bank, described how better broadband has improved their ability to care for the community: “We run on referrals, with a significant amount coming through email. Previously, our connection has been interrupted for a few days which can be frustrating, especially during our peak times like this upcoming Christmas period where we rely on our broadband more than ever as we process hundreds of referrals through our database.

“There are a number of reasons why people access our service; it can be anything from delayed benefits, addiction problems, unemployment or debt, but the common thread is that all those who reach out need help. Without good internet access we would not be able to provide the important service that’s much needed in Midlothian, but for us that’s not an issue anymore and things have improved significantly since we switched to GoFibre.”

Andy Hepburn, Chief Operating Officer at GoFibre, said: “There are many members of the local community who rely on the church and value its services as a place of worship and community as well as the vital food bank resource.

“A high-quality and reliable connection is now a must for any charity and community organisation with everything now online. We therefore have a responsibility to provide a reliable and smooth service to these lifeline services, from the install right through to the connection itself.

“By focussing on our job by providing top notch engineering alongside customer service we’re enabling the Midlothian Food Bank and Gorebridge Parish Church to concentrate on providing support to those most in need. We’re committed to providing the best, most reliable connections for all the communities that we serve, and we will soon visit the church to see the difference our full fibre has made.”

Over 6,000 premises in Gorebridge are able to access and benefit from world-class digital connectivity courtesy of GoFibre, with the technology enabling businesses to future-proof, whilst reaching their full economic potential.

More than 22,000 premises will be able to enjoy enhanced connectivity and network reliability across East and Midlothian.