Council pledges more food help for hard-hit families

Families facing food shortages are to be given a further helping hand from the council.

The charity Family Action will use £30,000 of funding to help set up a new food club scheme for families struggling to buy groceries during these difficult times.

By paying an annual membership fee of just £1, families that join can then buy £15 worth of food for only £3.50 and multiple purchases can be made to support larger families.

The council and Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Children Partnership have invested £30,000 to set up three new food clubs in Heywood, Newbold and Littleborough with established charity Family Action.

The latest support package available to families comes after £500,000 worth of Aldi vouchers were posted to the borough’s most vulnerable families in May to help them buy food and household essentials. In April the council gave £30,000 to the borough’s established food banks for emergency food parcels.

Councillor Kieran Heakin, cabinet member for children’s services, said “We see this as one of our key covid-19 recovery steps where we can sustainably support our families which encourages them to help themselves in an achievable way. It is a sad reality that many families struggle to provide food for all the family, as Marcus Rashford has highlighted recently, and projects like this will be invaluable. I’m proud of the action we’re taking for our families.”

The clubs are proving very popular and helpful to local families. There is the option to purchase the significantly reduced food bags but the council and has also invested in providing free bags to those most in need.

Since the scheme started in July 834 bags have been provided.

Family Action run Food on our Doorstep (FOOD) projects that aim to provide regular access to sustainable food, encourage families to seek wider support, reduce the cost of food so that families are in a better position to improve their life chance and wellbeing and reduce the amount of food being sent to landfill but utilising surplus food.

Food is sourced from their partnership with FareShare which links in with local and national suppliers.

Michael Cowieson from Family Action, said: “We’re delighted to have partnered up with Rochdale Borough Council on this.

“From the feedback we receive we know our clubs make a huge difference and it has changed their lives massively so it will be a huge benefit to many families going through challenging times.”

If you require the support of the new food clubs, please contact:

• Newbold Youth Centre (Rochdale) 01706 649729
• Littleborough Children’s Centre 01706 378166
• Derby Street Children’s Centre (Heywood) 01706 369889