Thanks to the efforts of our residents and business partners, we were able to triple the monthly target we set in December, raising £16,000 to help provide food and essential toiletries to those who need it. A huge thank you to all those who contributed.
Following this success, we are now relaunching our campaign with the aim of raising at least £50,000 by April. Pledges are made using a once off direct debit, where the pledges are only taken once.
As we continue to face challenges brought about by a third national lockdown, food providers in our borough persistently see an exponential rise in demand. Without urgent support, many food banks face the impossible decision of having to turn people away or limit how often people can use their services.
Since the start of the pandemic, we’ve been able to support 31 food banks to help 6,500 residents a week access food. We are once again asking partners, local businesses, staff, and residents to please donate to our urgent appeal.
What we'll deliver:
- Run campaign to raise £50,000 to be distributed via the VCS Food Distribution Hub
- Use all the funds to buy and distribute food and household supplies to 31 food banks and schools in the borough
Why it's a great idea:
Since April 2020, the council has distributed an incredible 260 tonnes of food to those who needed it and invested £750,000 through its resident support scheme, but Covid-19 has had a huge impact on our finances. Despite making £200m in savings since 2010, we now need to save a further £30m, while seeing a rise in demand for services. We must keep up momentum with helping our food banks and need as much support as possible through donations and corporate sponsorship.
£5 could buy a family (two adults and three children) a package of essential toiletries £10 could buy a family a package of essential food items, including rice, pasta, tinned tomatoes, oil, spices, potatoes, onions and garlic £20 could buy a family a package of toiletries and food listed above, as well as nuts, honey, cereals, mixed vegetables, plant-based milk and salt. Spacehive is waiving its fee for this project so all donations will be going to the campaign, minus the GoCardless transaction fee of 1.2 per cent
Steps to get it done:
- Collect pledges once the campaign target has been reached
- Confirm the amount of money available to all 31food bank
- Buy food and household supplies
- Distribute food to those to the 31 food providers to enable them to support families most in need
- Re-start the campaign once the target is reached
Other ways to help If you want to help but can’t support financially at the moment, Tower Hamlets Volunteer Centre can connect you to a volunteering opportunity through our Volunteer Hub. More than 2,300 people have signed up through the hub since the start of the pandemic, and volunteers have played a key role in the community response to Covid-19. Our incredible volunteers carry out roles such as driving personal protective equipment to carer’s homes, delivering shopping to housebound residents, and helping distribute food supplies to foodbanks. Find out more and sign up: https://www.vcth.org.uk/ Thank you with your help we can make a real difference to people in our borough. This year has been challenging for everyone, but we hope that by supporting our local food banks we can make things a bit easier for those needing food support.
