Local West Cheshire Foodbank Drop-off Point for Dodleston and District

As a Parish Council we made the decision to immediately respond to the food poverty crisis by setting up a local, accessible collection point here in Dodleston. The donated food will be taken over to West Cheshire Food Bank, which is part of The Trussell Trust.  Regular updates via our Facebook page and webpages will be published to give those that would like to donate to this cause, more information.
We would like the drop-off point to be accessible and make it easy to donate, so until further notice, will use the following address:
12 Egerton Walk
Dodleston

Please leave any donations in the red box to the right by the front door. Donated food will be taken to West Cheshire Food Bank on either a weekly or fortnightly basis (depending on the number of donations). Donations can be dropped off at any time during the day, 7 days a week. Any donation would be welcomed but if you would like to donate the most needed items, look at this list on a weekly basis.
 
With businesses closing and jobs lost, the pandemic has put an unparalleled strain on Foodbanks here in Britain and families are struggling to keep their heads above water.
Figures from June showed that demand is greater than ever – an 89% rise for The Trussell Trust, the UK’s biggest food bank network, while the Independent Food Aid Network, which has around 350 food banks, saw a 175% increase in requests for emergency parcels. We expect that this figure will rise steeply in the coming months as the Furlough scheme ends to be replaced by a lower level scheme and more businesses are closing their doors. And we have Christmas around the corner.
Here are more statistics on the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on food banks:

• An 89% increase in the number of food parcels distributed - up from 81% in the second half of March
• A 67% increase in the number of household referrals to food banks – up from 48% in the second half of March
• A 107% increase in the number of children needing support from a food bank in April 2020 compared to April 2019
• An increase in the number of families with children receiving food parcels, up from 33% in April 2019 to 38% in April 2020
• A significant increase in need for food bank support across the UK in April 2020 compared to April 2019, but with variations across the country, from a 47% rise in Scotland to one of 142% in Northern Ireland
• For each of these figures there is a person – a mother struggling to feed her children, a nursing assistant who can no longer afford to put food on the table, professionals who have slipped through the net of government employment support. The list goes on. 

If you need help from the Food Bank, there are a few simple steps to follow. The most important step is to get a foodbank referral. More information can be found here on how to access the foodbank.