Carlisle s affordable food hub has busy half-term in-cumbria.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from in-cumbria.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
HALF-term holidays have proved difficult for many families during the coronavirus pandemic. For parents whose children receive free school meals, it can be difficult for them to provide for their children at the best of times but the pandemic has squeezed finances even further. While recent school holidays have seen the Government step in after sustained pressure from the likes of footballer Marcus Rashford, families were left to rely on local council support this half-term. Coun Lisa Brown, who founded Carlisle Community Help and the city’s affordable food hub, said the organisation had seen an increase in demand last week but the number of people who require support had already been rising.
A COMMUNITY food hub is seeing increased demand for its services as more and more families struggle to cope with the financial impact of Covid-19. Carlisle s Affordable Food Hub, based at Kingmoor Park, launched in September and to date it has received more than 1,300 orders for parcels of groceries. And despite Cumbria County Council confirming support for free school meals provision for almost 1,200 children over the holidays, the Affordable Food Hub is continuing to see a growing customer base. Lisa Brown, project and campaigns co-ordinator, says job uncertainty and reduced hours is driving more people to turn for help. The numbers keep going up and up. It is steadily but there is no sort of let up in it. There have even been some more emergency food parcel requests, which had sort of died off. People seem to be getting more desperate now, she said.
The Covid-19 pandemic has been such a difficult time for so many sections of the wider community. For young people, it has been a time of unprecedented worry regarding one s future and what the world will look like once life finally gets back to some kind of normality. Thanks to community heroes such as Theresa Mulholland ,the traineeships coordinator of Carlisle United Community Sports Trust, young people who have been able to still receive their education from the Trust, in this period. The 12 week programme helps young people who are not in full time education or employment to improve their skills, confidence and to gain placements in work.