Cheshire charity Hampers of Hope has received just under £5,000 to fund a Hope Centre, a local facility to help people in the Wilmslow and Handforth area who are facing financial difficulty. The centre will offer people support in job searches, cookery classes, as well as money management and information technology training courses.
The donation was provided by the Santander Foundation, which offers Discovery Grants to UK registered charities for projects that help disadvantaged people in local communities.
Hampers of Hope provides emergency food hampers for those in need of support. The organisation also runs Hope Centres to help address the root causes of poverty. The grant will fund the Hope Centre on Lacey Green for an entire year, during which an estimated 80 people will be supported.
The organisation will also be able to provide those in need of food support with breakfast and lunch, cooked in one of its cookery classes. Additionally, the funding will ensure that leaflets providing advice on how to find employment will be made available at various locations. Job seekers will also receive enhanced support such as information technology courses and an internet hub, and resources will be provided for money management courses.
Cristel Berridge, CEO at Hampers of Hope, said: “The support from Santander Foundation means so much to our charity. Through this funding, we are able to continue our work of relieving poverty, restoring dignity and reviving hope in North East Cheshire. It means even more to the individuals we help through our work as it shows that they are worth supporting and this is a major factor in helping to get them back on their feet.”
Teresa Wallwork, at Santander’s Wilmslow branch, said: “The Santander Foundation makes hundreds of donations every year to good causes throughout the UK. Our branch is committed to playing a key part in the community and we are delighted to be supporting Hampers of Hope, and hope the donation makes a real difference to local people.”
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Notes to Editors:
Media Contacts
Leonora Burtenshaw at Santander Email: leonora.burtenshaw@santander.co.uk
Tel: 020 7756 4543
Cristel Berridge at Hampers of Hope Email: cristel.berridge@hampersofhope.co.uk
About Hampers of Hope
Cristel Berridge founded Hampers of Hope as a Christmas project in October 2011, collecting non-perishable food items to make food parcels for local people and families (50% of whom were children) who were struggling to put food on the table. Thanks to the generosity of so many individuals and organisations, hundreds of lives were touched in local towns and villages and Hampers of Hope was able to distribute over 100 food parcels.
The demand for emergency food support locally was so evident that Hampers of Hope could not stop after Christmas. Over the years it has continued to grow, and in December 2016 the organisation provided 400 Christmas food hampers, a number that is expected to increase year on year.
For more information please visit: www.hampersofhope.co.uk
Santander Foundation
The Santander Foundation is at the heart of the Bank’s community activities, providing grants to small charities and social enterprises working with disadvantaged people to fund skills, knowledge and innovation projects across the UK. Discovery Grants of up to £5,000 are available to support three types of activity:
- Explorer: improving people’s knowledge
- Transformer: supporting skills and experience
- Changemaker: innovative solutions to social challenges
Over the last five years, the Santander Foundation has provided £26 million in funding to 13,914 UK charities through Discovery Grants and Staff Matched Donations. For more information please visit: www.santanderfoundation.org.uk
Santander UK is a financial services provider in the UK that offers a wide range of personal and commercial financial products and services. It has brought real competition to the UK, through its innovative products for retail customers and relationship banking model for UK SMEs. At 31 December 2017, the bank serves around 14 million active customers with c19,500 employees and operates through 806 branches (which includes 61 university branches) and 64 regional Corporate Business Centres. Santander UK is subject to the full supervision of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) in the UK. Santander UK plc customers are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) in the UK.