Two local community projects which are providing valuable support to combat holiday hunger and national charities FareShare and the Trussell Trust are to receive an extraordinary donation from Sodexo’s global Stop Hunger Endowment Fund.

Holiday hunger is an ongoing issue that has been exacerbated by the pressures of the Covid-19 pandemic. The donation from the global Stop Hunger Endowment Fund, based in Paris, is helping the UK’s Stop Hunger Foundation continue to support organisations tackle hunger and promote life skills in local communities. 

£10,000 of the donation is being used to support two local projects, the sporting community foundations of two of Sodexo’s stadia partners in Newcastle and Everton.

Newcastle United Foundation will use the funding to help run its ‘Community Kicks’ football sessions for 1,300 children across Tyneside which are run throughout the summer holidays. Along with support from Brakes’ Meals & More foundation, the Stop Hunger donation will help to provide a nourishing meal to participants.

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Gill Keeka, Development Manager at Newcastle United Foundation, said:

The aim of this programme is to reduce holiday hunger, while improving knowledge and understanding of health and reducing anti-social behaviour in the local area. Football is such a great way to spend the summer holidays while enjoying the benefits of physical activity.

Peter McGrath, Operations Director, Meals & More, added:

Sport and other activity can have a positive impact in engaging communities as well as reducing isolation of youngsters and improving their well-being. 

We are delighted that Stop Hunger is supporting our work to help these summer clubs by providing healthy meals for participants, who often have limited access to adequate meal provision during the school holidays. Every year, Meals & More provides hundreds of thousands of meals to the most vulnerable in society and it’s only with the generous support of organisations like Stop Hunger that we are able to do this.

Everton in the Community, the official charity of Everton Football Club, promotes life skills in local communities to tackle the issue of hunger, and will be providing daily hot meals for 1,000 children from areas of deprivation and poverty during the school holidays. 

Throughout August, Stop Hunger volunteers from local Sodexo teams are giving their time to support the two community foundations’ efforts to fight holiday hunger.

Two of the Stop Hunger Foundation’s long-standing partners, Fareshare and the Trussell Trust will each receive an additional £40,000 respectively to support in their continued work helping local communities across the UK. 

Gareth John, Chair, Sodexo Stop Hunger Foundation, commented:

Like many charities, the Foundation has been impacted this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Our employees’ fundraising efforts have been curtailed, and our biggest annual fundraiser, the Foundation Dinner, had to be cancelled in March this year.

Nevertheless, our teams rallied as the lockdown set in, donating surplus food to national charities Fareshare, the Trussell Trust and other local foodbanks from local sites which had to close. Our employees have continued to volunteer and raise funds where they can, whether through virtual quizzes or other activities.

This donation is a huge boost to the Foundation in the UK and Ireland, and we are delighted that it is being used to help these charities in their important work to tackle hunger in our communities. 

The Trussell Trust supports a network of foodbanks across the country that provide emergency food and support to people in crisis. Foodbanks saw a huge surge in demand at the height of the pandemic, with an 89% increase in need for emergency food parcels in April 2020 compared to the same month last year. 

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Emma Revie, CEO, The Trussell Trust, said:

So many people have found themselves having to turn to a food bank for emergency food during this time, which is just not right. We are very grateful for the generous donation from the Stop Hunger Foundation which has helped us to be in a position to support the level of need our food banks have seen recently, which would have overwhelmed us in normal times.  We are so grateful that we have been able to be there for them with the support of partners like Sodexo.

Fareshare, which Sodexo has supported for over 10 years, redistributes good quality, surplus food from across the food industry to almost 11,000 frontline charities and community groups.
 

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