Rochdale Foodbank applies for grant to complete floor repairs and improve environment

Rochdale Foodbank

Rochdale Foodbank has applied for a grant from the Asda Fight Hunger Create Change partnership.

If granted, the funds would allow Rochdale Foodbank to complete floor repairs following structural damage, and to improve the quality, health and safety of the environment for clients and volunteers.

Volunteer workers were left with less than half their normal working space in December 2018, as it was revealed that the floor needed replacing in the middle section of the building.

• www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/125731/rochdale-foodbank-back-to-normal-after-repairs

More than 90 food banks across the UK have been awarded grants to provide additional support to people in crisis through the Asda Fight Hunger Create Change partnership between the retailer, anti-poverty charity the Trussell Trust, and food redistribution charity FareShare.

From supplying emergency food parcels to providing on-site debt and money advice, the grants allow foodbanks to hire specialist advisers, create additional storage space and increase work to help those people facing poverty across the UK.

In the 12 months since the launch of the three-year campaign, the £20m partnership between Asda, the Trussell Trust and FareShare has supported development for long-term solutions to the drivers of food bank use and developed a ground-breaking pilot to deliver fresh surplus food to food banks.

Rochdale Foodbank has helped thousands of local people who have found themselves in food poverty since its launch at St Mary in the Baum in July 2012.

It operates on a voucher system, provided by over 130 agencies in Rochdale who have identified people in crisis, who may struggle to buy food. The voucher is honoured like a cheque, in exchange for three-days’ worth of goods.

In 2017, more than 6,600 three-day emergency food supplies were given to people in crisis at Rochdale Foodbank, providing more than 2,200 children with provisions.