The award has allowed for the delivery of three-day food parcels for individuals and families, 1,000 cooked meals, 150 children’s packed lunches, food for Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) residents and also on-line activity tutorials with materials for children every week for 12 weeks. 

The project is based at Centre81, CHA’s community centre, and the Centre81 Steering Group and Café81 (resident café) volunteers have taken the lead in the delivery of this project and are supported by CHA’s Centre81 staff.

Centre81 has recently provided a focal point for the community to rally round and safely volunteer and provide a service beyond the immediate local area of Whitecrook itself. The Wellbeing Fund project work is on top of the great work already provided by the Trussell Trust from Centre81, in collaboration with Café81, in providing a foodbank facility from the Centre.

The Café81 and Centre81 staff and volunteers are all working really hard in both roles to ensure both the CHA project is carried out and foodbank packages are delivered to vulnerable people within the community each day. 

The pandemic has left many individuals and families locally waiting for benefits to be processed and in need of support in the short to medium term.  There has been a significant increase in Universal Credit applications since the pandemic took hold and this has had a huge impact on those having to further juggle financial commitments. 

Sharon Keenan, chief executive of CHA, said: “Our project intends to help and meet the current needs of tenants and members of our local community who are in food/poverty and who have limited access to food and other activities during this pandemic.

“It’s great that with this funding we can provide such a high level of support during this worrying time. The feedback we are receiving assures us of the positive impact the project is having.  We are so grateful to all of the volunteers for getting involved and making this project a success.”

• Read all of our articles relating to COVID-19 here.