23 March 23
Affinity Water and the Herts Community Foundation Support the Borehamwood Foodbank
- Affinity Water has donated a total of £4,493 to help run a Foodbank in Borehamwood, in Hertfordshire to help with its clients’ energy costs.
- The grant was provided with the help of the Hertfordshire Community Foundation (HCF), who manage a charitable fund on behalf of Affinity Water.
Affinity Water has teamed up with the Hertfordshire Community Foundation to offer help to those facing food insecurity.
The Borehamwood Foodbank helps people in crisis with food, fuel vouchers, free school uniform and access to information about benefits. It has this year just been appointed Elstree and Borehamwood Mayoral Charity for 2022/23 in recognition of all the valuable services provided to the local community by its volunteers and staff.
It offers a full support package to its users including providing toiletries and household goods if needed and help towards fuel to cook and heat homes as well as the provision of new school uniforms and shoes. It runs a surviving winter project, with CAB benefits advice and much more. Family lunches have been offered since the Foodbank started up. It stayed open during the pandemic.
Julian Milner the Chair of the Trustees of the Borehamwood Foodbank said:”
The food bank has been here for ten years, and we are helping all the people in the community who are struggling with food insecurity. Our operations have grown significantly in recent years, particularly since the Covid19 lockdown, so we are not just a foodbank anymore, we are offing more financial and social inclusion to our clients.
“We try and help them find solutions so that they don’t need our services any longer and through our partnership with Citizens Advice we give financial advice too. We have a 60 per cent success rate on this with our clients telling us they don’t need to use the Foodbank again. It is a holistic approach to help them with the hand up not just the hand-out.
“We want to thank Affinity Water for its generous donation of £4,493 which we will use to support our client’s energy costs and we look forward to working with their employees as volunteers helping us to pack up parcels in the coming year”.
Liz Freitas, Inclusive Services Engagement Manager, Affinity Water said:
"We are pleased to work with Hertfordshire Community Foundation again this year to support this wonderful project. As the UK’s largest water-only Company, we are determined to reach out and help those most in need as we know the numbers needing help are growing as the cost of living rises. We are this year providing a one-off £50 discount on bills to some of our customers who are struggling to pay.
“The Borehamwood Foodbank is 10 years old this year and during that time they have not just provided emergency food parcels to those most in need but have also reached out to offer lifestyle support aimed at helping people to move away from food insecurity. Their compassion and advice have helped thousands of families in Hertfordshire, and we are delighted to support their work.
“There are also a range of options for financial help with paying your water bill that can be found on the Affinity Water website: affinitywater.co.uk/helptopay”.
Anna Jarmolinska-Nowak, Affinity Water’s CSR Manager said:
“I think it is very important that we as a water company support the local community. We supply a public service, water to our customers, and it is important for a responsible business to work in partnership with the local community to provide support. By partnering with the Hertfordshire Community Foundation, we are able to identify those most in need and our annual grant was topped up with an additional £2,000 this year bringing the grand total to £4,493. We are also giving our employees four volunteering days a year and some of us will be helping the Foodbank to pack up parcels in the coming months”.
Georgina Bawden, Grants Manager for Hertfordshire Community Foundation said:
“Addressing need and deprivation through funding and support to small local charities is core to our work in Hertfordshire. We work with individuals, families and corporates who want to support their local community in an easy yet impactful way. We are pleased to have managed a charitable fund for Affinity Water for over 18 years and help them to support more than 26 local charities with grant funding. Affinity Water wanted to help with the cost of living, so we linked them up with the Borehamwood Food Bank which has become the bedrock of the local community offering a wide range of support for those facing financial hardship.”
Hertfordshire Community Foundation can be found at hertscf.org.uk
The Borehamwood Foodbank can be found at borehamwood.foodbank.org.uk/
Customers who are clinically vulnerable, have sight, hearing impairments, or additional health needs, can join the free affinitywater.co.uk/priority-services. By signing up it will allow the Company to support them better.
Affinity Water is actively participating in StepChange’s annual Debt Awareness Week and would advise people facing financial hardship to visit its website and to seek advice sooner rather than later: www.stepchange.org/”.
Our photograph shows Liz Freitas, Georgina Bawden, Julian Milner and Anna Jarmolinska-Nowak, at the foodbank.