SALFORD FOODBANK RECEIVE MUCH NEEDED CASH FROM CHARITY ART AUCTION

We reported yesterday that we gave £80 each to The Mustard Tree Foodbank and The Unemployed Resources Center, Breakfast Club to help them purchase essential foodstuffs, the money came from a donated piece of artwork by the talented, Brian Gorman which was purchased for £250 by the ever generous, John Mottershead.

Today we paid a return visit to The Emmanuel Church on Langworthy Road, Salford for a chat with community organiser, Peter Simms to hand over £90 for their foodbank, which is open on a Wednesday morning, 10am - 12pm and is currently helping to feed 50 families a week.

"We are seeing a huge increase in the number of families using the service which is managed by my mother Yvonne and other volunteers, nobody gets paid I hasten to add.

The main foods we can offer are high in protein, eggs, tuna, beans, pasta, cereals etc, we also offer toiletries, free contraceptives and sanitary products for females, sadly we can never have food on our shelves to feed our users.

I have seen Mothers come in and just choose food to feed their children and they go hungry, same with Fathers who do the same, it's heart breaking to see in this day and age, food should be guaranteed, not a luxury"

The foodbank spends £400 a week purchasing food from discount cash and carry stores and Fare Share, this money is raised from fund raising events and local grants but is never enough, last week Yvonne paid for 24, whites, sliced loaves to restock the shelves out of her own money, which left me speechless when she told me on our last visit.

The £90 we gave them today is sadly a drop in the ocean to them, and so if you can help in any way by dropping off, any unwanted canned foods, pasta and toiletries at the foodbank, I would urge you to do so, these people truly are the unsung heroes of Salford, and they need our help.