Lancashire - COVID-19 Community Support Fund
The pandemic has been incredibly challenging -- for people unable to work, for families with children at home during school closures, and of course for those who were already struggling financially. At Chorley Help the Homeless we knew it was important that we continued to serve the community with our food bank and benefits advice service during this difficult time.
The Lancashire COVID-19 Community Support Fund helped us to fund our services between July and October with a grant of £3,100
The Lancashire COVID-19 Community Support Fund helped us to fund our services between July and October with a grant of £3,100
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Thanks to the Lancashire COVID-19 Community Support Fund we have been able to... > Give out food parcels to individuals and families We gave out 383 food parcels between mid-July and October. 302 food parcels were for individuals. 81 food parcels were family-sized packs for families with children. Our food bank mostly relies on donations from the public, but thanks to the Lancs COVID Fund we were able to buy some bulk food supplies to meet demand. We used £1,105 of funds to buy food and toiletries, which helped us to support families for three months. This meant that we could be a part of Chorley's Holiday Hunger Provision during the school summer holidays. > Market Voucher Scheme We began a voucher scheme with six participating stallholders on Chorley Market, so that our food bank customers could supplement their parcels with fresh fruit, veg, meat and dairy. Between July and October, customers used 458 vouchers (at £2.50). We used £1,145 from the Lancs COVID Fund to pay for these vouchers. A big thank you to: Tyrer's Fruit & Veg - Pat's Cheese Shop Bees Country Kitchen - Handley's Bakery Gobin's Family Butchers - Critchley's Farm Fresh Meats > Benefits and Tenancy Advice Service Our lead volunteer caseworker for benefits and tenancy advice was able to continue working at CHTH after the lockdown to provide support for people who were at risk of losing their home. Between July and October, 16 people were helped with benefit applications and appeals. We used £98 from the Lancs COVID Fund to help with volunteer expenses. > Administration and computer upgrades The challenge of providing more support to our customers over the summer made it clear to us that we needed to improve our IT systems and replace our very old computers. We used £758 from the Lancs COVID Fund to purchase a new computer, and to buy computer supplies such as ink cartridges. |
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Statistics:
383 food parcels given out 81 of which were given to families with children 232 children in total 52 households were single-parent families 29 households were families with two parents 458 Market Vouchers used 251 of which were used by families with children 16 people helped with benefit applications and appeals |
£1,105 funds used for food and toiletries
£1,145 funds used for Market Vouchers £758 funds used for computer and computer supplies £98 funds used for volunteer expenses |
