Charity Fundraising

CHARITY FUNDRAISING

Members of the county’s police force have been supporting a Newcastle-basedcharity.

Staffordshire Policeofficers and staff based at Longton Police Station in Stoke-on-Trent have been driving up donations for acharitablecause.

Officers and staffspent a weekcollecting dry food items andtoiletries for their ‘Bring A Can’ fundraiser, with more than 1,000 items piling up during that time.

And thelarge pileof donations was collected recently by the Alice Charity’s Philip Rhodes to stockuptheir People’s Pantry, which supports families in need acrossStokeon-Trent and Newcastle-under-Lyme.

Ruth Davies, aVulnerability Co-ordinator withStaffordshire Police’s Harm Reduction Hub South, organisedthe appeal. She said: “Followinga talk from thefounder of theAlice Charity, Emily Petts, about what they do Iwas really inspired to help out. “So Iemailed everyone and asked people to bring acan or otherfooditem with them and they respondedsowell.Itwas incredible to see how much we collected. The support was really good. “The charity is agood resource for us at the police to referfamilies to for help. And it’s atwo-way thing -however we can help them out it’s agood thing to do.”

Sergeant Chris Moss,from Staffordshire Police’s Stoke South Neighbourhood Team, said: “Ruth wantedtohelp them out so arranged all of this and everyone who works at Longton just brought something like apacket of pasta or tin of something to work over the past week. “Philip came to collect them and just brought his car –they nearly didn’t allfit in. “It’s abrilliant idea and we love doing as much as we can to help out. These charities support our police work so it’s good to be able to help them out too.”

The People’s Pantry is a central part of the Alice Charity, supporting families throughout Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastleunder-Lyme to provide a helping hand whenit’s most needed.

The People’s Pantry offers families aplace they can call upon in difficult timesand get a balanced choice of food, allowing themtoput ahomecooked meal on their table.

Philip Rhodes, Manager of People’s Pantry, added: “I couldn’t believe the amount of food that had beenraised. This will make amassive difference to thefamilies we help. “It enables us to add variety to ourfoodparcels ratherthan just the basics as we’ve had some sweet treats donated and it enablesustobulk outthe food parcels abit too.”

From left, Ruth Davies, Philip Rhodes of The Alice Charity and Chris Moss with the donations in Philip'scar