Food banks receive Co-op funding boost

More than 40 foodbanks have received a winter funding boost from Lincolnshire Co-op.

Over £225,000 has been shared between 42 groups across Lincolnshire, parts of Cambridgeshire, Nottinghamshire and Hull.

Among the recipients is Lincoln Food bank, which is run by the Acts Trust, and has received £20,000.

Services manager Carolyn Bradbury said the money would help cove "a lot of our overheads that we have desperately sought funding for".

Bradbury said the money would also help to pay for a charging point for their electric van, which is used to deliver some of the 250 food parcels the charity hands out each month.

Major Colin Bradshaw, from the Salvation Army, in Gainsborough, said he was "amazed" when he received news the charity would benefit from a £9,065 donation.

He said: "We're spending two to two-and-a-half thousand pounds a month on food, feeding 150 plus people a week, half of them pensioners, a quarter of them low-paid employees.

"It's really going to make a massive difference and enable us to meet the need, especially as winter's approaching."

Other recipients include Boston Food Bank, who were given £12,095, Scunthorpe Food Bank, who received £6,746, and Hull Food Bank who received £1,723.

The money was raised through Lincolnshire Co-op's Community Champions scheme.

Mary Leggett, senior community co-ordinator at the society, said: "Our local food banks provide invaluable support to some of the most vulnerable people in our communities, often when they have nowhere else to turn. Thank you to every single person who's contributed."

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