New fund launched to tackle food insecurity

A new fund has been launched by Hackney Foodbank to support organisations helping residents living with food insecurity.

The Hackney Foodbank Community Fund, which will be managed by the London Community Foundation, is comprised of unspent financial donations received by the charity during the pandemic.  The number of people in crisis rocketed during this time and, with limited staff capacity, the food bank’s focus was on scaling up operations and sorting emergency parcels to meet the huge demand.

Now, with a full staff team in place and with support from the London Community Foundation (who will help manage the fund), grants of up to £10,000 are being offered to local groups.

Pat Fitzsimons, CEO of Hackney Foodbank, said: “We are in the midst of an economic emergency – in the past two years food prices rose by 28%, rents here in Hackney are particularly high and many more people find themselves living with food insecurity.

“Around one in 10 London residents have just £3 per day to spend on food and a quarter regularly skip meals.  At times this year demand for our food bank have exceeded the peak of the lockdown period and we’re hopeful that these grants will help support people out of food poverty, enabling existing groups to deliver and scale up support and providing the seed-funding new organisations need to get started.”

Trustees at the charity hope the grants will support the work of the Food Network in Hackney (a group of food support organisations).

The Hackney Foodbank Community Fund will be open for applications by midday on January 22nd. For more information, visit: https://londoncf.org.uk/grants/hackney-foodbank-community-fund