Emergency services, community groups and families struggling to combat food poverty across Cumbria have benefitted from a collaboration headed by Cumbria Local Resilience Forum (CLRF).
CLRF has worked with RE:ACT, a disaster response agency, to broker donations and manage offers of support for emergency services across the county and help provide community groups and charities with much needed supplies.
Its latest support has seen a donation of bottled water from United Utilities, which was distributed by local logistics company Wm Armstrong to six police, fire and ambulance stations in Carlisle, Penrith, Workington, Kendal and Preston.
Bottles were also donated to Eggcup, a community support group which has been helping families combat food poverty during the COVID-19 crisis.
CLRF consists of organisations and agencies involved with emergency response across communities and has been particularly active in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic to help Cumbria respond and recover from the many challenges.
Cumbria’s response to COVID-19 has seen a number of agencies working closely together with many people working outside of their normal day jobs to ensure the CLRF’s strategy is translated into action on the ground.
Jo House, Cumbria Police Inspector, said: “We are grateful for the ongoing support from the private sector with many businesses, such as United Utilities on this occasion, donating supplies and offering support. We are lucky to have an experienced logistics partner in Wm Armstrong to provide guidance and the expert assistance needed to distribute the donations.”
Geof Armstrong, Wm Armstrong director, said: “We are pleased to be involved with the distribution of drinks to emergency services across the region. Our trucks deliver to all areas of Cumbria every day, so it made sense for us to be involved and help out.”
John Doyle, United Utilities regional response team leader who organised the donation, said: “We hold stocks of bottled water to give to customers when we have a burst water main that interrupts water supplies. In particular, we give these to our priority services customers such as the elderly. We’ve reached the point where we have several thousand bottles where the best before date is almost upon us so, rather than throw them away, we thought we would share them with people who need them.”
Mary Lockwood, RE:ACT North West liaison officer, said: “RE:ACT Disaster Response has been working with Cumbria’s Local Resilience Forum throughout the Covid-19 pandemic to meet the unmet needs of the most vulnerable. RE:ACT’s partner, Business In The Community, first alerted us to United Utilities’ offer. I am delighted the donation will help Cumbria’s front-line services and people living in food poverty. Thanks must go to United Utilities, CLRF, and Wm Armstrong for all their efforts to make this donation happen.”
