In May the Manchester Relief in Need Charity trustees awarded Mustard Tree a grant of £5,000 towards their Food Club:
“We’ve seen that COVID-19 is not only impacting peoples’ physical health, but also their mental wellbeing. Barry and Tracey from Mustard Tree have been visiting one lady in Wythenshawe semi-regularly, who has mentioned that she has nobody to speak to, and that Mustard Tree delivering her parcel is the only interaction she’s receiving.”
“In her own words, she’s self-isolating, very lonely and has loved her chats with Tracey and Barry.”
Since the start of lockdown to the end of June, we have supported 4,648 people and families.
People have visited us for food or had food deliveries over 14,500 times in three months.
Many of our food parcels were delivered to families with young children."
In May, Children Relief in Need made a grant of £1,000 to Early Essentials. In October, Sarah from EE wrote to us saying:
The funds have been hugely valuable in helping us to continue our work supporting vulnerable pregnant women across Manchester by providing our Moses basket starter packs to those identified as most in need.
Since the start of lockdown to date, we have processed 118 referrals. This is the equivalent of approx. £35,400 worth of stock given out (if we were to have to buy it all brand new). This takes our over all total of women helped to 896.
We thank you and are so very grateful for your continued support and encouragement.
In May this year Relief in Need awarded the Audacious Foundation with a grant of £3,000 as emergency COVID-19 funding.
One elderly lady requested support from the Foundation after receiving a flyer. We were able to provide an emergency food parcel, and on delivery were informed that she had not eaten in three days due to being unable to leave the house and having no support network.
Though she spoke little English, the allocated volunteer spoke French and was able to converse in depth, discovering that she had arrived in the UK as a refugee earlier in the year. We have since been able to help her access the internet, connect with a Congolese refugee support group & source furniture items that were lacking.
“…with the funding provided by Relief in Need we have been able to provide a total of 3640 meals to Manchester Residents during this difficult time.”
“We were incredibly thankful to receive a generous donation of £2,000 from Manchester Relief In Need to support our unplanned emergency spending to support young people in crisis throughout the Coronavirus lockdown.”
The funding has enabled 5 young people to stay connected to our men's only mental health group after purchasing handsets dongles to enable these young people to stay connected during the lockdown.
We have hand delivered 25 well-being packs to our young people containing self help tools, mindfulness aids, creative crafts, and food. These were very much appreciated, as most are living alone, some with no family, so to be supported during this lonely period has made a big difference.
" I never thought me, a homeless girl, could do the things I've done."
- Catherine, Centrepoint resident
Because of the generosity of Manchester Relief in Need we have been able to create an enjoyable experience during lockdown filled with activities and happy memories instead of a traumatic and potentially volatile environment.
- Alison, Deputy Manager
With so many young women having to isolate together. Not only have we been able to provide activities and happy memories, but we have been able to prevent altercations which in turn would have created evictions for the young women living here.
We can’t thank you enough for your continued support, kindness and generosity, especially during these very uncertain times.
“With this grant, we have extended the hours of the allotment worker on a fixed term contract to ensure that the allotment site is producing fresh fruit and vegetables the whole year round for the food bank, and to manage volunteer workers.”
Thanks to your support, our allotment worker has been able to offer informal volunteer helper sessions to beneficiaries, giving them more opportunities for physical outdoor exercise as a way of improving mood, socialisation and transferable skills such as teamwork and cooperation.
There is an additional benefit of introducing food bank users to how easy it is to grow fresh fruit and vegetables: it encourages healthier choices, which has a potential impact on local families that could last for generations.
