A year on from our last Food Story with Station House, they spoke to us about their worry regarding the Cost of Living Crisis, the impact the crisis has on the families accessing their food provision, and the support they receive from FareShare Yorkshire.
Station House Community Association, based in Thurnscoe, is a busy playgroup for children aged 2 to 4 years old. It is open 5 mornings and 5 evenings each week, working parents to have a safe place for their children to be both at the beginning and at the end of the day. In any one week, they host around 60 children at the centre.
Charlotte Williams, Chief Executive at Station House, spoke about the struggles of the Cost of Living Crisis.
“All of our costs have gone up. The only way to increase income is to charge more, but that would have a negative impact on the families, the very people that we support. Our aim is to support local people living in or near poverty.
“It’s also affected all of our families. Even before the crisis, they were only just managing, even working families struggled. With the small increases each week, it’s just becoming impossible for them. Parents are becoming much more stressed, which then feeds through to the children. Where we can, we have helped them with shopping vouchers and cleaning products.”
Charlotte went on to tell us how much FareShare Yorkshire deliveries make a big difference to their centre.
“The food that we get from FareShare Yorkshire gives us so much capacity to provide meals and snacks for all of our sessions. Without FareShare Yorkshire, we’d be unable to feed the children! We know from the parents that when the children are well fed, it relieves pressure at home. Fruit and vegetables are always first to go, as well as breakfast cereals. We have noticed that the quantity our families need has risen enormously in the last year.
“We are so grateful for FareShare Yorkshire. Over the year, we have grown and developed our partnership with them. Of course, we love being able to feed our children and their families with quality items for a fraction of the price. We also celebrate that we are a small part of a huge system saving food from being waste. In a country that is in the top 10 world economies, no child should go hungry and no food should be wasted.”
