THE Rotary Club of Llandudno has encouraged people to donate items to a homelessness charity's foodbank.

Llandudno Rotary has had a long-standing working relationship with the charity ‘Hope Restored’, which was founded by Brenda Fogg in 2010.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, this has extended to creating and servicing a network of donor points for its foodbank at Llandudno Baptist Church, Great Ormes Road, West Shore, Llandudno.

Rising prices, particularly in fuel, plus the recent withdrawal of the weekly £20 uplift to Universal Credit, are creating more demand than ever for help at the foodbank.

Ian Trevette, who is particularly involved in Llandudno Rotary’s foodbank efforts for Hope Restored along with his wife Margaret, said: “There’s no doubt, as we can go into this winter, that there is an increase in the number of families who are going to struggle.

“The economy of the area is such that there is pretty good employment during the summer, but once we’re out of season, there’s obviously not as much work around for people.

“They (Hope Restored) have experienced an uplift in demand for food bank support from families from the area.

“It’s really us playing our part in seeing if we can get a message out and encourage people to make donations.

“For individual families, it (a food bank) is like a place of last resort, but it’s a consequence of the loss of the uplift to Universal Credit, of coming off furlough; it’s a struggle, particularly for young families.”

People have been urged to spare a few items of food (other than perishables) or household goods (e.g. soap, toothpaste or cleaning materials), with small-pack noodles, long-life milk, breakfast cereals, jam, cup-a-soups and tins of meat or fish especially welcome.

You can leave this at Hope Restored’s Great Ormes Road centre, or at any of the following pick-up points:

Llandudno Town Centre:

• MSI Alarms, 9 Llewelyn Avenue (office hours)

• Providero Coffee Shop, Upper Mostyn St

Craig-y-Don:

• 103 Queens Road

• Kaszana Polish Minimarket, Mostyn Avenue

• Craig-y-Don Co-operative, Mostyn Avenue

Other:

• 6 Vicarage Road, Llandudno

• Ty Hwnt Yr Afon, Rowen

The Rotary Club of Llandudno was founded in 1927 and forms part of Rotary International - a global network of service volunteers. Visit their website at: www.rotary-ribi.org/clubs/homepage.php?ClubID=1111.

For more on Hope Restored, their website can be found at: www.hoperestored.co.uk.