Generous BAE Systems Submarines employees in Barrow have raised a significant amount of money to support the town’s foodbank.
The Cumbria Community Foundation launched the Cumbria Covid-19 Response Fund at the start of the pandemic to help people during the coronavirus.
So far £10,795.77 has been raised by shipyard employees and with the inclusion of Gift Aid the total adds up to £13,469.71.
Innovative ways of raising money by BAE Systems employees included a weekly quiz run by site engineering authority staff.
“We all felt that we wanted to try to help those in our community that didn’t have support or had been impacted financially by the pandemic and decided that we would hold a quiz on a Friday morning as part of our daily team meeting,” Principal Engineering Manager Tim Wykes said. “With a £5 entry fee we also used this as an opportunity to socialise and talk about things in general and how we were being affected by the difficult circumstances.”
Tim added: “This week we passed the £1,000 mark and the team are as enthusiastic as ever to continue.”
Since March the Barrow foodbank has helped over two thousand people.
Claire Coulthurst, Assistant Manager, said: “It’s heart-warming to know that amongst peoples’ own struggles throughout this pandemic they still think of others less fortunate than themselves. There was an instant increase in need and we saw the demographic of clients change – furloughed workers, self-employed and contractors and families that have never needed to use a Foodbank before were now requiring food parcels.”
She added: “Generous donations will allow us to keep purchasing any food and resources that we need to feed those in crisis.”
BAE Systems Submarines is part of the Maritime and Land UK sector of BAE Systems.
