Residents at Parc Mawr in Penllergaer and Bellway Wales staff have come together to donate food to Swansea Foodbank.
Bellway, which is building homes at the development, offered its sales office as a collection point for donations and residents responded generously, bringing tins and packets of food for the charity to distribute to people in need in the local area.
The foodbank, which has seven centres around Swansea, feeds 200 to 300 people each week – individuals and families. In the year from March 2024 to March this year it helped 13,387 people including 4,736 children.
Operations Manager at Swansea Foodbank, Debbie Sharpe, said:
“We are so grateful for the continued support we receive from so many kind-hearted individuals and organisations such as Bellway.
“Without this support we would struggle to keep our doors open.”
Debbie said that the numbers needing help from the foodbank is rising because of unemployment, changes in benefit eligibility, and increases in the cost of living. Alongside this, donations are falling.
She said:
“We are sadly seeing a number of working families turning to the foodbank because they are struggling to pay bills and, because they are working, they do not have the government support others get.
“Even though the number we are supporting is continually increasing the donations we receive are decreasing rapidly. People sadly cannot donate like they used to as they struggle to manage financially themselves.
“In the month of May we received 4302.36kg in donations but we gave out 6429.3kg in food. We currently have to buy in food; we are spending up to £1,000 if not more, which cannot be sustained long-term.
“This is why we are so grateful to the wonderful staff and donors that have all contributed to this amazing collection from Bellway Wales. Their generous donation and continued support means that we can continue to support people around Swansea that are struggling to cope in such difficult times.”
Claire Dowd, who lives at Parc Mawr, let others at the development know about the collection campaign through the Parc Mawr Community Group Facebook page.
She said:
“There was no hesitation from the community who were really keen to get on board and support the collection.
“It’s so great to see the amount of items donated by the community, they really do love to come together for a great cause such as this.”
Sales Manager for Bellway Wales Rhodri Davies said:
“Swansea Foodbank is doing such important work in supporting people who find themselves in food poverty for a variety of reasons. It is heartbreaking to think of people going hungry.
“We have a brilliant community here at Parc Mawr and they are always keen to help others when they can. They really stepped up generously to donate items that were needed. It was a magnificent response to the callout to the community group, and I’d like to thank all of them for their kindness.”
