BRADFORD Council will provide £600,000 of support to food banks to help people suffering from the current Coronavirus lockdown.

The Council's Executive is expected to approve the funding at a meeting being held remotely next Thursday.

The additional funding pot will be made available to charities until the end of May and will be used to continue to provide essential food distribution that is taking place for shielded and vulnerable groups, provide support for existing food banks across the district and to support identified neighbourhood food projects that are supporting vulnerable groups.

The Council is working with voluntary sector and local businesses to organise food delivery.

It has already set up five distribution hubs and a central distribution service that are working to make daily distributions to those who are on the NHS shielded list or who have been identified as vulnerable.

So far almost 4,000 food parcels have been delivered to people’s doorsteps.

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The Council’s facilities management services are also working closely with schools to make sure that there is provision of free school meals or ‘grab-bags’ for children who need them.

A report to the Executive also says the Council will be supporting "befriending hubs" to help isolated people.

The report says: "Hubs are currently connecting referrals for loneliness to established ‘befriending services’ that pre-existed in district and these have been supported through the addition of ‘trained volunteers’ to help build resilience.

"However, a district wide befriending scheme is being developed that will provide the means of connecting people who are socially isolated to befriending support. The cost of this is £28,000."

Councillor Sarah Ferriby, portfolio holder for healthy people and places, said: “We’ve said from the start of this pandemic that it is a priority that no one who needs food in our district should go without. We have worked quickly to put in place distribution hubs to make sure we get food parcels out to people. This extra resource will mean that we can continue to provide food for those who are vulnerable or facing hardship

“This has been a real community effort. I want to thank all those who are involved: Our Council staff, many of whom have been redeployed to help with home deliveries; all the staff from voluntary organisations and local businesses who have helped; and of course the volunteers who have stepped forward to help with this and who are supporting local food banks.”

Anyone who needs help getting food can call Bradford Council on 01274 431000 to access emergency food parcels.