Southern Co-op members have made a difference to the community by raising more than £75,000 to help food banks and those who rely on their services.
The donation will be shared between 75 food banks, which are currently supported by customers’ goods donations in Southern Co-op’s retail and funeral care branches, including 2 on the Isle of Wight.
More than £48,000 was raised by customers swiping their membership cards, as Southern Co-op has pledged to donate 2p to the pot per qualifying transaction.
Through the co-operative’s Share of the Profits scheme 2021/2022, a further £22,570 was donated by members. Colleagues donated the remaining funds from a one-off support payment.
1 of the foodbanks to benefit is Pan Together, which exists to support and provide a community hub for the residents of East Newport, which includes the Isle of Wight’s most disadvantaged area, ranked at 5.8% in England’s most deprived.
Rachel Thomson, Community Centre Manager, said:
“Many people in our local area face multiple challenges and are amongst society’s most vulnerable and marginalised, including the shocking 35% of children who are growing up in poverty, against an England average of 17%.
“Having identified the growing need in Autumn 2021, our community support and anti-poverty services are (sadly) increasingly essential to local residents. No one should face going hungry and the tough economic times are biting hard.
Article continues below this advertisement “One mum told us: I’ve never asked for help before as I find it extremely embarrassing but I was getting so desperate I actually thought about stealing food to feed my kids.
“We’ve seen a shocking 160% increase in requests for food-related support in the period from July to the end of September 2022 compared to requests from October 2021 to June 2022. Sadly, demand is increasing monumentally – and demand is probably greatest from working families.”
The other foodbank on the Isle of Wight supported with donation points at The Co-operative Food stores is Isle of Wight – Trussell Trust.
Between February and December last year, 17,566kgs of goods were donated to foodbanks by customers and members.
In December, £40,000 worth of gift cards were also shared by Southern Co-op to food banks across the south to help families and individuals affected by the cost-of-living increases.
Holly Bramble, Southern Co-op’s Community Lead, has said:
“It makes me incredibly proud when I see how much money and food our customers have enabled us to donate to foodbanks. One food bank we spoke to reiterated that every tin of food makes a difference and I have seen this first-hand.
“We know times are tough and many foodbanks have seen donations drop whilst demand increases. So we want to encourage our customers to keep swiping their membership cards but we’d also like to thank all of the people behind the scenes at these foodbanks who make the impossible possible. Thank you.”
Members of Southern Co-op have also made it possible for more than £26,000 to be donated to the Disasters Emergency Committee’s Ukraine Humanitarian appeal.
Give NOTHING. These leaches receive thousands a year in tax credits, universal credit, child allowance, cheap or free rent and council tax, free school meals, extra help with energy costs and cost of living, free school uniforms, and transportation for their children.
Yet they only need to work 16hrs a week, they often claim to be single parent, but only as it adds to their ‘single parent’ extra allowance income, and NEVER sleep alone.
They continue to have more children WHICH, IF they were oh so poor, would not unless selfish bring other hungry poverty struck clones into the world.
It is just a lifestyle choice and by whinging they play the victim and get ever more.
The few who deserve are RARE, the majority are parasites
Not being at all judgemental there then IV.