House builder steps in to help 100 families over Christmas
One of the region’s biggest house builders has donated 153kgs of food items, the equivalent of 191 meals, to a Wearside foodbank.
Christmas sees an increase in demand for essential goods at the County Durham & Sunderland Food Bank Warehouse,whichprovidessupport to families who need it most over the festive period.
It has now received the donation from Miller Homes.
Miller transformed five sales offices into food bank drop off points in December and collected everything from Christmas biscuits, nuts and cakes to tinned goods and toiletries, all given by their staff and generous public.
The donations will help over100familiesacrossCounty DurhamandSunderland,who might otherwise have struggled for food and other essentials over the holidays.
The relationship between the home builder and foodbank was established when Miller’s sales team supported the charity over Christmas 2020, donating 86 packages of food and toiletry supplies. The relationship has grown from there.
According to a November report released by the Childhood Trust, 250,000 children in the UK will go hungry this Christmas. Nearly a fifth of familiesinthecountryareworried about not being able to afford Christmas dinner.
Debbie Whittingham, area salesdirectoratMillerHomes,
said: “The last year has been a reallydifficulttimeforfamilies across our region and there is
still a long way to go for many of us.
“We are thrilled to have
doubled our 2020 donation to thefoodbankandwehopethat everyone involved in the charity has a fantastic Christmas.”
Foodbank Warehouse coordinator, Jonathan Conlan, said, “We completely rely on both food and financial donations to continue to operate our foodbank network, so the generous donation from Miller Homes is very gratefully received.
“Christmas is a busy time for us and are expecting that the amount of people accessing food banks this year will be particularly high down to a combinationoffactors;includingcutstoUniversalCredit,increasing fuel costs and rising prices for food.
“Donations like this ensure that there is not only enough to eat, but a taste of Christmas too.”
Todonatevisitsunderland. foodbank.org.uk or durham. foodbank.org.uk.