THE Food Bank in Tenbury has been given a grant from Malvern Hills District Council to help it cope this winter.

Malvern Hills District Council has provided funding to a number of community projects supporting the ongoing response to the Covid-19 crisis.

In July, the People Make Places Fund was launched in partnership with crowdfunding platform Spacehive. This offered a way to raise funds by connecting people with local causes.

Malvern Hills District Council made a pot of £25,000 available to support 50 per cent of the cost of projects, up to £5,000.

Six projects were successful in reaching their crowdfunding targets and received a total of £15,200 from the council, as well as donations from 172 backers, including communities, local businesses and foundations.

The remaining amount from the council pot will be linked in with Worcestershire County Council’s fund which is called Crowdfund Worcestershire.

Tenbury Food Bank raised £5,450 for their project to continue to provide food parcels and delivery services to those who don’t have transport or are self-isolating. They also run a ‘food share’ each week where they share donated and bought fresh produce.

The Rev Mark Inglis, vicar of Tenbury, who runs the Food Bank says that the service has been helping people who would never normally have expected to need this kind of help.

In recent months there has been a large increase in unemployment and it is feared that this will get worse as Government support such as the furlough scheme is removed.

Two other charities that will get help are active in the area.

Age UK raised £4,562 for their ‘Reaching Across the Malvern Hills’ project which will aim to recruit and train volunteers to become the friendly voice on the telephone, or a supportive visitor, for people who are still locked inside due to coronavirus.

The DAWN Project raised £10,834 to offer individual, face-to-face support sessions for women who have experienced or are experiencing domestic abuse.

“We are really proud that here at Malvern Hills District Council we are thinking differently and using innovative new ideas such as Spacehive,” said Sarah Rouse, leader of Malvern Hills District Council.

“It allows us to bring together our communities, businesses and the Council around projects we all value”.

The next round of funding is the People Make Places: Ticket to Ride Fund which aims to support innovative and sustainable community transport projects across the district.

The council has made pot of £150,000 available over the next three years (across six rounds of funding) to support these initiatives. The maximum amount pledged to a project will be £50,000 or 50 per cent of the total project costs.

A number of organisations have pitched their projects to Spacehive for this round and will move on to the crowdfunding stage.