Christmas comes early for Morecambe Foodbank

STAFF at Heysham have donated £16,000 to Morecambe Foodbank, after deciding to forgo their usual on-site Christmas lunches.

The sites Covid precautions meant that the planned sit down end-of year lunches had to be postponed, and staff decided to donate the cost of the dinners to charity.

Martin Cheetham, station director at Heysham 1, said: “The staff wanted to support the Foodbank which was great. And so we joined up with our colleagues at Heysham 2 to double the donation.”

Martin was joined in a visit to the Foodbank by Heysham 2 station director Mark Lees and union representatives Trevor Sperring, Lucas Carr-Dixon and Dan Lawson when they met Annette Smith, the Foodbank’s manager.

They were given a tour of the site at Morecambe’s Platform and met some of the volunteers who are providing this valuable service.

Annette said: “The money from the power stations means we can buy in whatever we need to support our families. It really is appreciated and I know it will make many families’ lives a little easier.

“This time last year we were looking after about 70 families a week but that has increased to around 300, as the pandemic, furloughing and unemployment has hit parts of the area hard.

“We do expect numbers to peak in the run up to Christmas. We are seeing new families coming the Foodbank who have never been to us before, and to see hardship on this scale is heart-breaking.”

The Foodbank puts together boxes of essentials to help families, but for Christmas the charity adds a few festive items such as biscuits and chocolates.