Rausings pledge £3.5mn to Trussell Trust emergency appeal
Melanie May | 24 October 2022 | News
Julia and Hans Rausing have pledged £3.5 million to the Trussell Trust’s emergency appeal to support its network of 1,300 food banks in what is expected to be a particularly difficult winter.
The Trussell Trust is expecting to provide 1.3 million emergency food parcels in the next six months, including an estimated half a million for children. It launched its emergency appeal last month – its first ever. The charity is seeing an enormous rise in need, with the reserve stocks that would usually help it through the winter months already used up.
The donation is the first in a series to be made by Julia and Hans Rausing in the coming weeks to support people experiencing food poverty this winter. A further announcement about this support will follow in due course.
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The £3.5 million donation will be focused on providing direct support to food banks and will help the Trussell Trust by:
- Funding direct grants to food banks to cover their increased running costs for food, facilities and frontline staff
- Directing financial support and advice to more than 100,000 people via the charity’s Help through Hardship helpline, run in partnership with Citizens Advice
- Additional support to food banks to help navigate the crisis including access to regional and national expertise
Julia and Hans Rausing are cornerstone donors to this appeal, alongside Tesco and Ovo. Tesco has announced a new £1m support package for foodbanks and food charities, with the money split between the Trussell Trust and FareShare.
The Rausings commented:
“The Trussell Trust and its network of foodbanks are relied upon by many thousands of people which is why we are supporting this important organisation once again.
“We hope others will also give generously to this emergency appeal in what is clearly an escalating food poverty crisis.”
Emma Revie, CEO of the Trussell Trust said:
“Through this emergency appeal we hope to raise the vital funds required to ensure that food banks can meet this devastating rise in need and continue to support people who are experiencing hardship. We never wanted to run an appeal like this, we would rather there was no need for food banks at all. But right now they are on the frontline of this cost of living emergency, we have no other option.”
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.