Salisbury Journal appeal with WCF to support under pressure groups

We have teamed up with Wiltshire Community Foundation to ask every reader to donate £1 to help charities and voluntary groups around the Salisbury area who are seeing unprecedented demand from families and individuals struggling to make ends meet.

The foundation will be able to increase any donation by 50 per cent through match funding - up to the value of £25,000 - meaning each £1 donated becomes £1.50.

Money raised by the appeal will go into the foundation’s Cost of Living Crisis Fund, which was set up last year. It has already distributed almost £23,000 to groups and charities providing food, mental health support, money advice, help with fuel bills or just offering somewhere warm for them to go.

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You can use this QR code to donate (Image: Newsquest)

The Pantry Partnership in Salisbury collects surplus food from supermarkets and redistributes fresh and as frozen meals to community groups around the area. Director Fiona Ollerhead said she and her team of volunteers have seen a steady increase in demand over the last two years.

“We work with groups across the city who are in contact with single mums, carers, people coming out of hospital, and the elderly. We work with the women’s refuge, some of the churches and housing associations and what we hear from those groups is that there is more demand on them.”

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She said her own group, which is based in the former bowls club at Victoria Park, has also seen its own transport and energy costs rise as more requests for help come in.  “We have had more requests to provide cooking activities for people on a low income,” she said.

“We run cookery workshops at our base at Victoria Park to show people how to use surplus food that is cheaper and better than ready meals. We are seeing people who are really finding it difficult to manage.

“Over the past couple of years we have seen a sustained need for help that I don’t think anyone ever thought would be there.”

The community foundation’s joint chief executive Fiona Oliver said: “Charities are under severe pressure from the sheer weight of enquiries and calls for help they are receiving so we are very thankful for the Journal’s appeal.”