People rally to help vicar

A VICAR who’s setting up a school holiday lunch club to help families facing food poverty in Aberdare has raised almost £450 already.

A VICAR setting up a school holiday lunch club to help families facing food poverty in Aberdare has raised almost £450.

Father Richard Green, the vicar of the St Fagans parish in Aberdare, plans to open the club to help families who rely on free school meals during the holidays.

Through a crowdfunder Mr Green raised £445 in eight days to help with the initial costs of setting up the lunch club.

Latest figures from the Trussell Trust, who run a network of foodbanks across the UK, show that more than 95,000 threeday food supplies were handed out in Wales between 2016 and 2017.

Mr Green, 41, from Somerset, said: “I am really pleased with the outcome and I am amazed by the speed in which we raised the money.

“I was not surprised by the generosity as the community are always supportive of what we do, but I was by the speed. There is still lots to do, but we are all really up for it.”

Vicar of the St Fagans parish for five years, Mr Green said the funds will pay for training and accreditation with UK-wide organisation Make Lunch.

The charity provides resources to set up lunch clubs, including training and making sure kitchens are insured and understand food hygiene.

Mr Green said himself and two other volunteers will go on a training day, and some of the money could be spent on kitchen equipment. The idea for the lunch club came after Mr Green’s growing awareness of food poverty in his parish area.

Mr Green said previously: “Obviously the issue is during the school holidays, when the pressure is on the families, who are on a lower income, to provide a good and healthy meal for their children.

“The need is definitely there. We collect things in the church for the local food banks and they tell us that the need is not going down.”

Mr Green said the lunch club aims to be up and running in time for the summer holidays or October half term, when it will be opened for a few days a week. While the club is targeted at free school meal users it is open to all.