Support our Holiday Hunger donation drive on Thursday 12th July and Friday 13th July, 12-6.30pm at Central Park, Montrose Avenue, Wigan to make sure children don’t go hungry during the summer holidays.
14.8% of children in the Wigan borough eligible for free school meals. That’s approximately 8243 children (based on most recent census information). The summer holidays last 30 days, excluding weekends, during this time each family has to generate extra funds for their children’s meals due to the loss of free school meals.
The issue of Holiday Hunger means that each school holiday our food bank sees a spike in referrals. The shelves are emptied faster, but donation levels remain the same. At Christmas we are lucky enough to be in many people’s thoughts, and the food bank receives huge levels of support throughout the festive season. We would like to see Christmas twice this year, once in December, and once in July, before school holidays and the impact of holiday hunger begins.
Food poverty impacts on children in a number of ways, physically and emotionally. Children’s young bodies are growing all the time, developing strong bones and immune systems to carry them through adulthood. If they are poorly nourished during this time they are at risk of tooth decay, poor physical growth, reduced brain development, depressed immunity, and decreased educational attainment at school – all of which carry long term impacts into adulthood.
We receive no funding for the food bank. The Brick Food Bank is run by volunteers. The food we give out is kindly donated by businesses and individuals across Wigan & Leigh. We need tinned foods such as meat, fish, vegetables, soup & puddings or dry food such as cereal, pasta & rice. We’re also taking other food items and household essentials such as Sauce mixes, biscuits, teabags, coffee, longlife milk, formula milk, nappies & toiletries.
Help us make sure that children don’t go hungry during the summer holidays.
Help us meet that need by donating food items to our Holiday Hunger donation drive. Open, Thursday 12th July & Friday 13th July for food donations 12 til 6.30pm at Central Park, Montrose Avenue, Wigan, WN5 9XL
Thank you for your support.