This month, The Vale Foodbank and Pontypridd Foodbank received a cheque for £500 each from our staff charitable fund.
The Vale Foodbank opened in September 2011 with one Foodbank centre in Barry. Since then they have expanded throughout the Vale of Glamorgan with 6 centres now distributing emergency food parcels into the community. The foodbank fed 3,501 people with emergency food in 2019.
Becky Morgan, Manager at the Vale Foodbank said, “The Vale Foodbank is busier than ever, we need finance as well as food to keep running. We’re really grateful to everyone at Newydd for their generous donation which will make a huge difference with our work.”
Pontypridd foodbank opened shortly after the Vale Foodbank, in 2012, and the project was set up by St Luke’s Church in Rhydyfelin. This financial year so far, they have helped over 2900 people, a number they said is likely to rise after the recent flooding in the area. During the week when the flooding occurred, they distributed over 2 tons of food to those affected. Two other churches in the area are also distribution centres in addition to St Luke’s.
Amanda Hayden-Hall, Manager at Pontypridd Foodbank said, “The money that Newydd donated will go towards helping feed the community. We have fed 644 children but are aware that there are over 2500 children in the Pontypridd town wards that are in food poverty and we are looking at ways to try and remove the stigma attached to foodbank to try and help these families.
Like all banks, people make deposits, and we encourage folk to know that sometimes life happens, and they need to make a withdrawal.”
Founded by local churches, the foodbanks work together towards stopping hunger in their local area. They rely on volunteers who offer their time to help sorting and storing the food and the rely on donations of food and money from individuals, churches, schools and other organisations.
Every day, people in the UK go without food, with 1 in 5 of the UK population living below the poverty line. Foodbanks try to address this by providing those in need with nutritionally balanced emergency food. Trussell Trust, the Foodbank network was founded in 2004 and by now they have got 400 foodbanks across the UK. From 2018 to 2019 alone they provided 1,583,668 three-day food supplies to UK residents in need and 577,618 of these went to children. A simple box of food makes a big difference and that’s why Newydd staff wanted to help.
Paul Roberts, Chief Executive of Newydd said, “Staff wanted to donate to the foodbanks following their December campaign to support people in food poverty. I am incredibly pleased that this money has gone to the local Foodbanks, worthy charities that we work alongside, supporting people who may be going through a difficult period in their lives.”
Newydd will have a food donation box in the office to collect donations for local food banks from staff all year round.
