A local housing association has stepped in to provide vital funding for the Isle of Wight Foodbank.
Recognising the incredible work that their foodbanks across the Island have been doing to support some of the Island’s most vulnerable residents, Southern Housing Group has provided £5,000 of grant funding directly towards their running costs.
Councillor Lora Peacey-Wilcox, the Mayor of Cowes, said:
“The Isle of Wight Foodbank has been providing instrumental support over these past few months and it is great to see them being supported in return. Southern Housing Group’s support will be a huge help in our fight against food poverty and our commitment to helping the community through these challenging times. As a town, we are extremely grateful to both Southern Housing Group and the foodbank.
Anabel Palmer, Director of Community Investment and Care at Southern Housing Group, added:
‘Although the island is no longer in lockdown, the need to access high-quality, affordable food has not gone away. Southern Housing Group is keen to support Isle of Wight Foodbank in any we can to ensure no-one goes hungry.’
Foodbanks can be a critical lifeline in times of crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic has been no different. The Trussell Trust, which seeded the Isle of Wight Foodbank, found that there was an 89% increase in food parcel demand and 67% rise in household referrals to foodbanks at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic with demand continuing to increase.
Southern Housing Group has also grant-funded £10,000 towards the cost of a new delivery van. Hannah King at the Isle of Wight Foodbank said:
‘The van will be a valuable addition for our collections and deliveries service, enabling us to distribute food to hubs around the island.’
The financial support for this scheme is part of Southern Housing Group’s wider food poverty strategy. Through its community investment budget, the Group is supporting a number of foodbanks and projects across London and the South East to ensure that local communities have access to healthy and affordable food.
What a disgrace for the UK, to have to supply food banks, yet still allow in the worlds poor to then have to feed, house, treat and educate. We should be ensuring our own and those already here are looked after first, not keep importing ever more until the needs has grown so great we can’t even then feed our own.
if southern housing have money to give away then they are charging the government too much rent on the properties they rent to those on benefits.
clearly rinsing the taxpayer these leeches are.
They need to teach finance in school and food nutrition, with the likes of aldi you can leave on good food for a whole week for under £25…
Drop the cigarettes and booze….and then you wont need a foodbank…
Please give more details on how you have achieved this.
i would have agree with you tony about 10 years ago, however, when you consider the cost of food now, you will struggle to feed yourself healthily for under £40 a week.
Thing is, it isn’t just food though – toilet roll, shampoo, shower gel, toothpaste, deodorant, replacement clothing, household cleaner, bin bags and other items need to bought regularly and then there are those items that need replacing from time to time, such as razors/toothbrush etc
when you are living on JSA and have to pay a portion of your rent, a portion of your council tax, you are left with about £50 a week, if you are lucky – then there is electricity/gas/water/tv licence to consider – thats before sky tv/mobile phone/internet and bus fares to job interviews.
I have been there and I can assure you, I ate everyday, but it was the cheapest food I could get and, whilst most was nutritious it was a balancing act to decide what to miss out on to cover a bill, or what bill to miss paying to get food in.
Thank you realist well said.
Not being funny…you clearly dont have a clue, sky tv…internet, phone bill you havent lived on the bread line. Food should be your priority, way more important then that rubbish.
As for clothing suck it up, charity shops…cheap and sometimes brand new with labels in them. If your a crafty survivor you can buy and sell on ebay…
Increasing your spending power.
im serious about food shopping under £25 weekly. Dont buy branded and stay clear of processed food, avoid sugary food just makes you more hungry. Cook from scratch, keep it simple & fresh / generally.
I dont even own a freezer…if you did you could save even more. Another savvy tip , cook off and fridge meat in batches when required to save on utility bills & washing up.
Might sound mental and strict, perhaps not normal. I feel unfortunately too many of us fall into the marketing trap, decades ago we never had half the amount of products on the shelves we do today !
Think about we were far healthier without them…
sadly tony- it is you that doesn’t have a clue.
i was on JSA years ago – i had a one bed flat i rented, no sky, no internet, no car, no mobile phone, no washing machine (hand washed everything)
i had to pay some rent, as not all covered by housing benefit, i had to pay some council tax -not all covered by council tax benefit – i had a 50% off bus fares, job seeker pass – still had to pay the other bit to get to interviews and restart sessions and required to attend or next JSA would be sanctioned.
you think for one second i could even afford to walk in the branded sections of the shops – everything i bought was “own brand” and from the nearest superstore, not tesco – couldn’t afford another bus fare.
electric on key meter – cook from scratch you say – i could not afford to buy meat in that way, are you actually for real. I did not buy any clothes for two years and made do with what I had – sewing holes in socks etc. name brand clothes were not even a consideration.
one fortnight i had £5 to spend on food for two weeks – i did not go out, drink or smoke.
i was not on the breadline tony – I was so far underneath it i could barely see the breadline if I looked directly up.
for the record tony – i got out of that position by finally getting a job and working every hour available, putting in 60 to 70 hours a week minimum on some weeks. To see the breadline now, i have to look down and whilst I cannot see it, I know it is there and I am extremely cautious about making sure I have cash saved, in case it all goes pear shaped and the breadline looms into view again
I agree with you realist, and unfortunately in order to apply for jobs now the Internet is needed as most applications are on line, and at one point this was linked to the DSS if they didn’t see any online application you didn’t get any money and in turn all other benefits where stopped because to them no DSS means you’re working and then you have that sorry mess to sort out, I bought up two wonderful children on my own, it’s not only single people and young couples using the food banks, when you factor in school uniform PE kit shoes school supplies, etc, and let’s not forget the elderly.
exactly, teacher knows best – couldn’t agree with you more.
and of course if you didn’t have an active claim in, then the unemployment figures looked better for the government.
being a single parent and trying to make that cash stretch to school trips, field trips, bit of spending money, not to mention trying to do birthdays etc is just another “ball in the air to juggle” when it comes to getting by on benefits.
state pension is fixed income and if the rent/food/bills always go up faster than state pension increases!
You always hear people say,…oh got money for sky and a mobile, well these days, the internet is seen as one of the essential services. Electric/Gas/Water/internet. The reason for that is because most of our lives are being transferred online and being without the internet is like have the leccy cut off.
The fact that people are being “referred to food banks” shows what a sorry state of affairs the system is in.
The Uk has the 6th largest economy on the planet, after the USA, China, Japan, Germany and India and generates over two trillion in GDP per year.
Why in a society of so much, are so many, without so much.