Food bank scoops £500 as Equilibrium community support scheme offers its first Greater Manchester grant

Ardwick & Longsight Food Bank has been awarded a £500 grant from wealth management company Equilibrium Asset Management.

Ardwick & Longsight Food Bank has been awarded a £500 grant from wealth management company Equilibrium Asset Management.

Run by local churches, the independent food bank relies on voluntary food and cash donations to provide emergency food parcel services for refugees, the homeless and impoverished community.

It also offers a signposting service to agencies in Manchester who provide help concerning rape, abuse, debt, mental health, job seeking and those learning to speak English.

Welcoming the donation, Ardwick & Longsight Food Bank volunteer Paul Chantry said the “grant will enable the funding of essential resources for running the food bank and emergency food for the very poor in the area”.

Equilibrium launched the Greater Manchester community support scheme – which gives the region’s charities, voluntary groups and not-for-profit organisations the chance to win grants ranging from £100 to £500 – in January 2018, following the success of identical initiatives in both Cheshire East and Chester.

This quarter, the £500 Cheshire East grant was awarded to the Central Cheshire buddy scheme, a charity which supports children, young people, and adults with disabilities by providing clubs, activities, days trips and residential weekends. Chester Supertrees gained the £500 Chester and district grant which will contribute towards their project to improve the bio-diversity, wildlife and air quality currently present within the City of Chester.

The community support scheme is one of many initiatives the financial planning experts run as part of its charitable foundation, which aims to raise £250,000 for local charities by 2020.

Debbie Jukes, partner at Equilibrium Asset Management, said: “Our community support scheme has been a resounding success since we started three years ago, and we consider ourselves very fortunate to be able to offer funding.

“We hope our funds will go a good way towards helping these organisations continue the excellent work they do.”

The wealth management company has run the scheme since 2015 and has awarded over £12,500 in funds to community groups to date.

Reviewed quarterly, the Wilmslow-based wealth management company says applications to the second round of this year’s community support scheme can be submitted up until Sunday 24^th June.

Projects that promote party political activities or religious causes, projects that benefit or involve animals and commercial enterprises are not accepted.

Applications from Greater Manchester can visit /the-foundation/greater-manchester-community-support-scheme/