Eighth food bank set up in Poole, thanks to Pirates

Set up at Parkstone Evangelical Church in Ringwood Road, Newtown, Poole this is the latest of eight in the area, which are receiving "steady" business from local people.

Pirates promoter Matt Ford was joined by club captain Maciej Janowski to hand over the £2,000 needed to get the service up and running.

"We always have a chosen charity each year, which is Julia's House," said Matt. "But when we heard about this we were happy to help fund the food bank at Newtown."

He said former Borough of Poole ward councillor Brian Clements had told him the church was struggling to find the funding for the food bank.

"The club was happy to step in and hopefully make a difference to people's lives," he said.

And Maciej wore the food bank logo on his bike when he rode that night, to give the cause more publicity.

Supported by a combination of the Trussell Trust and Faithworks Wessex, with some independent groups also involved, there are now banks at Poole Town, Hamworthy, Kinson, Boscombe, Christchurch and Wimborne as well as satellites at Winton and Southbourne.

Ron Barnett, an elder at the Evangelical Church, said: "Like other churches we seek to serve our community and have been concerned that the people in our locality who are in need of emergency food supplies have to travel to Poole to get them. So we felt we had to do something to resolve this situation."

They contacted the food bank manager and worked with three other churches who were keen to get involved, St Clement's, The Church of the Good Shepherd and Rossmore Gospel Church.

However in order to set it up, the police advised that four windows in the church hall be replaced with double glazed units, and the cost of this and the necessary racking cost almost £2,000 so they were delighted when the Pirates stepped in.

Chas Rowling, community development manager, Borough of Poole, who helps with training and getting people together, said the banks were seeing "steady" use.