A UK online flooring retailer is supporting some of the most vulnerable families in its area this Christmas with a four-figure donation to a network of food banks.
Leicestershire-based UK Flooring Direct, which recently opened a new warehouse and offices in Coventry, has donated £6,000 to The Trussell Trust’s food banks in Hinckley, Nuneaton, Bedworth and Coventry.
The effects of the Coronavirus pandemic, such as redundancy, have played a key role in more people turning to food banks for support.
The Trussell Trust's Coventry food bank has seen a 50% increase this year on the number of people they fed last year, while their Bedworth food bank helped around 4,200 people in the first three months of the first lockdown - a huge increase on the 1,285 during 2019.
The money donated by UK Flooring Direct will enable the Bedworth food bank to purchase chicken and turkey to ensure as many vulnerable families as possible have a meal on the table on Christmas Day.
Elsewhere, Coventry’s food bank will be using the funds to pull together hundreds of Christmas hampers made up of selection boxes and other festive treats for vulnerable families.
The Nuneaton and Hinckley branches of The Trussell Trust will be using the donation to purchase non-perishable items to ensure they do not run out of essential stock.
Lisa Ashby, Board Member at UK Flooring Direct, said: “We are passionate about giving something back to the community that we call home, and have established strong relationships with the region’s food banks.
“We are aware of the tough times that many families are going through right now, and hopefully this donation will go some way to making the festive period a little bit easier.”
Hugh McNeill, Project Manager at The Trussell Trust in Coventry, said: “The donation from UK Flooring Direct will enable us to source items we are short of - such as festive treats above and beyond the usual food packages that we put together - so we are extremely grateful to them.
“By the time we mark our 10th birthday on 21 January we will have fed more than 190,000 mouths – 40% of which are children aged under 16.
“Sadly, we’ve seen demand steadily growing over the past decade for a variety of reasons. This includes austerity, those having to wait longer for payments during the rollout of universal credit, and now the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic where employed people in secure jobs last year suddenly had nothing.”
