Dundee Rotarians putting the freeze on food by helping city’s good causes

Dundee Rotary Club has donated £6,500 to support good causes across the city dealing with the impact of coronavirus.

The money has been donated across the care and NHS sectors as well as other services in the city.

Among the recipients is Dundee Foodbank, which has been given a £2,000 donation, as the service faces a surge in demand.

The money will help buy new freezers to boost storage capacity.

Ken Linton, Dundee Foodbank manager, said the money has come at a crucial time.

“We had problems at the start of the lockdown because of a shortage of food finding its way to us and demand from people so high,” he said.

“That problem has been overcome thanks to the great generosity of

Dundee people using our access points in Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s.

“Now we need more freezers to store the food, especially bread we are receiving, so the money we received from Dundee Rotary Club will help us to buy freezers.”

In the health sector, a £1,000 donation has been handed to Tayside Health Fund and £575 has bought toiletries and food stuffs to the critical care team at Ninewells Hospital’s ICU ward.

The Dundee Health and Social Care Partnership has received £130 worth of hand cream. Increased infection control measures have seen care workers using more hand sanitiser so the hand cream could alleviate any irritation from that.

A £1,000 pot has been divided equally between two volunteer groups that deliver groceries to housebound people.

One group helps under-65s who are self-isolating because of health conditions or who have symptoms of Covid-19, but have no friends or relatives nearby who can lend support.

The other half of that donation is set to go towards the expenses of 22 volunteers who are helping with food provision across the city.

And three donations of £500 are to be given to Menzieshill Community Foodbank, Lochee Larder and to a project in Mill o’ Mains that delivers meals in conjunction with Dundee Bairns as well as to the area’s older generation.

Mary Crighton, Dundee Rotary Club president, said: “We were keen to make donations where we could best assist the local community and so we approached local agencies and NHS Tayside and responded to their requests.”