Stoke comes together as food bank use expected to rocket over Christmas

Altecnic Ltd, a plumbing and heating supplies business based in Stafford, have teamed up with Stoke-on-Trent Food Bank to supply 150 families with a ‘Turkey and all the trimmings’ food voucher.

It's just one of many initiatives across the city to make sure the most vulnerable are fed throughout winter. It'll even mean they get to enjoy a proper Christmas dinner.

Stoke-on-Trent Foodbank are providing families with ‘Turkey and all the trimmings’ vouchers, helping those who have been hit by food crisis this year.

In addition to this, the branch is providing the usual food packages to those who need temporary additional support, which they say is vital during winter when money is needed to be spread thinly over things like heating, food and presents.

As well as help with physical health, all Trussell Trust branches attempt to improve the mental wellbeing of those who visit the food bank.

The ‘Money Matters’ scheme is run in hope that the additional support in money management will lead to them not having to visit the food bank again. This is part of the goal to end the need for food banks entirely.

Managing Director at Altecnic, Gary Perry said "This is such an unprecedented time so, it is only right that we give back to our community and try to help them enjoy Christmas as much as possible."

Caroline Wolfe, Community and Business Liasion Liaison Officer at the Stoke-on-Trent Foodbank added “It was amazingly good timing, Altecnic got in touch asking if they could help provide Christmas dinner for people in need, just as we were looking into the feasibility of including a Christmas food shopping voucher in our food parcels that would enable our guests to buy 'turkey and the trimmings' from a local food chain. It was a perfect match."

In addition to this, the staff at Altecnic are invited to donate as much food as they wish, as well as small gifts just to spread the Christmas spirit. This will all be delivered to the food bank on 13th December, ready for processing by the food bank itself so that it can be quarantined and distributed before Christmas Day.

It's thought around five million people in the UK currently live in poverty and local foodbank use is expected to rise by more than a third over the holiday season.

Between April 2019 and March 2020, over 1.9 million food parcels were given out by the Trussel Trust in the UK with 186,000 of those across the West Midlands.

It's as other initiatives are getting underway across the city to help the most vulnerable, including an 11-year-old from Cannock who's released a Christmas single.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council have also set aside around one million pounds from the governments 'Winter Grant Fund'.

The authority will set aside the majority of the money in a bid to prevent 18,460 children from going hungry during the winter.