“For some children that come here, it’s the only fresh food they have access to.”
Black Country Foodbank wanted to help improve access to fresh food for vulnerable people accessing our foodbanks and local community projects. We know that through food insecurity, people are often forced to eat low quality food or not enough food, leading to malnutrition.
Malnutrition and hunger don’t just affect people’s physical health, but also their life-chances, self-confidence, and mental well-being. Access to free fresh food can play a role in helping to reduce some of the health inequalities faced by vulnerable people accessing our foodbanks and local community projects
We offered our 26 foodbanks and local community groups the opportunity to apply for up to £500 worth of funding to purchase fresh food items. The fresh food could be given out alongside food parcels or could be utilised as part of other food related projects.
All that we asked was:
- The beneficiaries of the project had to be people experiencing financial hardship within the Black Country
- Funds could only be spent on purchasing fresh food items (not ambient)
- The grant could not fund additional project costs such as venue hire, staffing costs etc
- But could fund seeds and compost to grow fresh food
