If
you you live in Annandale and Eskdale, I hope this blog of mine might
be of some interest. If you don't, well not so much.
So
here's the thing. If you do indeed live in Annandale and Eskdale and
you are over the age of twelve, you have the chance to cast a vote to
decide which charities get a share of £64,275 worth of Anti Poverty
funding.
If
you want to stop reading right now, then you can follow the link
below straight to the voting page.
There
are thirteen of us in the frame. First Base are hoping to secure
enough votes for an ward of £8500.
What
will we use the cash for if we are successful? That is a simple
enough question to ask. We don't plan do do anything particularly
fancy.
Basically, we will provide emergency food to a whole bunch of people. Probably
about 2500 of them over the next year.
Is
this likely to happen?
You
bet it is.
Here
is what we did in the month of March. Our emergency food parcels are
available from 12 collection points across the region.
Annan
Library - 60
Annan
Citizens' Advice - 6
Kates
Kitchen, Annan - 40
Shelter,
Annan - 8
DGHP,
Annan - 6
Eastriggs
Library - 6
Gretna
Library - 10
Langholm
Library - 10
Moffat
Library - 10
Proudfoot
Centre, Moffat - 16
Lockerbie
Library - 40
Lochmaban
Library - 4
TOTAL - 214
It's
a lot, right? Every month these figures tend to go up. It takes a
while for communities to get their heads around the idea of emergency
food parcels being available from the local library.
Will
it go up a whole lot more over the next 12 months? Who knows? Sadly,
there seems little evidence of the UK enetering any kind of golden
era. My own hunch is things will stay more or the less the same. But
I could easily be a country mile wrong!
If
you feel inclined to help us out, then follow the link below and cast
a vote for us. The process could be easier if I am honest. I guess it
will take you 5 minutes or so.
It
would be really great if you could encourage a few family members,
friends and work mates to do the same.
We
were successful in the Nithsdale voting, but only just. We came in
sixth which was enough to get us over the line. Our online
campaigning was obviously not as good we hoped it might be.
Basically
we need a bunch of people to do a bit of nudging, sharing and
cajoling. I hope you might be willing to be one of these.
£8500
means half a week's worth of food for 850 people who might otherwise
go hungry. And yeah I know, it shouldn't be this way in 2019. But sadly it
is, and it will be so for the next year.
£8500
goes a long way to making sure nobody needs to go without.
Hopefully
this is worth 5 minutes or so of your time. Once again, here's the
link.
Thanks
for making it to the end of the page!
