Holiday Grub Club
Published on 15 July 2022 07:59 PM
Age UK Plymouth have teamed up with Western Power Distribution (WPD) and Localgiving to provide free lunches over the summer holidays for grandparents and over 50s taking on childcare to support their families during the school holidays. As part of WPD and Localgiving’s Community Matters Fund £500,000 will be provided to charities and organisations delivering projects that offer both short-term interventions to stop holiday hunger and longer term support to help reduce food poverty
Free lunches will be available every Friday during the summer school holidays at Age UK Plymouth’s Mount Gould Centre on Astor Drive. The centre is a 15 minute walk from the city centre, with free parking on site and also accessible via the regular 23 and 24 CityBus service from Royal Parade.
Keen to make sure that the scheme can reach as many families as possible those contacting Age UK Plymouth can also take up the offer of a hot meal from a more central partner venue Monday to Friday up to the final date of the project Friday 2nd September.
Designed to help those over 50 who may be supporting working families during the school holidays, meals can be booked by contacting Age UK Plymouth on 01752 256020 Monday to Friday 9am – 4pm.
Heather Stenning, Head of Services at Age UK Plymouth said, “We’re thrilled to be able to work with Western Power Distribution and Local Giving again to realise a project designed to support those living in food poverty. The cost of living crisis has presented a new challenge for the charity as unprecedented numbers of calls are coming in through our Information and Advice Team. We know from the requests for support that people are incredibly worried at the moment and giving up a meal in order to feed younger family members is a reality for many people at the moment.”
Western Power Distribution describes its Community Matters Fund as part of its commitment to support the communities it serves and its local environment: “Over the next five years, as part of this long-term commitment to its communities, WPD has promised to deliver a shareholder-funded, annual £1m support fund for local community initiatives and good causes. The Community Matters funding programme builds on the £1 million Covid response fund it delivered last year to support vulnerable customers through the pandemic. You can find out more about the Community Matters Fund on our website.”
Tara Dale, Head of Fundraising at Age UK Plymouth said, “Thanks to this grant from the Community Matters Fund we are able to support those facing Food Poverty this Summer. As we celebrate our 80th year anniversary it’s amazing to see how the challenges change but the mission always stays the same - we hope that by providing meals for carers and the young people they are supporting through the holidays we can continue to be there for over 50s in our city but also help them to support their own families and the wider community.”
During the first Lockdowns Age UK Plymouth received funding from WPD’s In This Together Community Fund which helped the organisation support elderly people who were struggling through the pandemic providing free food boxes to those most vulnerable and in need and were able to support hundreds of older people across the city. Last Christmas the charity were able to deliver hampers to older people in the community thanks to a huge donation of food from Devonport High School for Girls and in 2020 volunteers from the charity delivered Christmas packages to over 400 older people across the city thanks to generous donations from local businesses, schools and the people of Plymouth.