Although our client base is international, one of our most important objectives at Ilex is to support our local community. Chichester District Foodbank is a vital resource for hundreds of people in our area. Our support for the ‘Kids Packed Lunch’ scheme will hopefully go some way to helping families in need as the school holidays approach.
Many families are struggling with the cost of living crisis with 1 in 5 of the UK population living below the poverty line the use of food banks has increased, according to Chichester District Foodbank. The Chichester Foodbank has been operating since September 2012 and launched the Kids Lunch pack scheme in Chichester as a part of The Trussell Group. The scheme helps to provide fortnightly lunch packs for children on free school meals due to low income during the Christmas, Easter, and summer holidays.
The Chichester Foodbank works with local schools to identify the right families and provide them with a voucher which they can bring to one of the 4 foodbanks centres and exchange for a lunch pack.
The project has become increasingly in demand and has meant the Chichester Foodbank has had to expand its capacity to meet the needs, pay for part-time staff to help develop and run the scheme, pay for shortage food items, and pay for increased storage.
To give you some idea of how many people are helped just in our area, each holiday the scheme is run (Christmas, Easter and summer breaks) costs £9,735. That’s £19,204 per year just for the holiday schemes.
We hope that our donation will go some way to meeting those needs.
If you want to help contribute towards the KLP scheme by Chichester Foodbank, you can donate here: https://bit.ly/3AfGMz0