STV Children's Appeal hand £400,000 to food poverty charity

Hundreds of thousands of pounds raised through STV Children’s Appeal will be given to a charity redistributing food to communities during the coronavirus pandemic.

The emergency £400,000 sum has been granted to Fare Share, who collect fresh, in date and good to eat food and share it with frontline charities that turn it into meals for those in need.

The move has been announced by STV’s chief executive Simon Pitts, who said: “No one will be hit harder by the coronavirus than our most vulnerable communities.

“We have therefore granted emergency funding of £400,000 from monies raised during the 2019 STV Children’s Appeal to FareShare, who will redistribute food to communities across Scotland.

“We are actively seeking to work collaboratively with other charities to ensure that funding gets to those who need it most right now, and will be adapting our future STV Children’s Appeal fundraising activities in 2020 to ensure we focus on the most pressing causes during this crisis.”

Last year Fare Share received 20,838 tonnes of food which was distributed to 1960 towns and cities across the United Kingdom – helping and 10,943 charities and community groups in the process.

The support from STV Children’s Appeal comes at a time of disruption across Scotland, as the Scottish Government looks to deal with the spread of coronavirus.

Mr Pitts added: “People and businesses across the country are now profoundly impacted by the coronavirus and we recognise the vital role that public service broadcasters like STV will play through this extended period of disruption.

“We are a free to air, universally available and highly trusted source of news, entertainment and information and we can use our privileged place in people’s lives to have a positive impact now and in the longer term.”