Through Amazon’s COVID-19 community donations, charities local to their UK sites have received pandemic grants that aim to help tackle the issues of hunger, homelessness and isolation.
The pandemic grants scheme provided funds to charities and causes hit hardest by the pandemic in communities near Amazon’s operating locations. All the charities that have been awarded grants were nominated by Amazon’s champion network of employees, who continue to highlight the issues that their local charities have faced throughout the pandemic, such as lack of funding and cancelled events.
Having received community donations applications from employees for charities local to their sites across the UK, more than 50 charities have been supported through the latest wave of grants – including more than 17 food banks, 27 projects supporting the homeless and 8 projects tackling isolation.
The Big Help Project
One local chairty, The Big Help Project (Knowsley Foodbank) was nominated by Yanira Gonzalez an AWS Project Manager.
The charity provides food boxes for families in need due to homelessness, unemployment and more. Before the pandemic, they reached 500 people every month, and during the worst months of COVID-19 they were helping 2,500 people each month. Support was critical for many people who were experiencing hardship at the beginning of the pandemic, and these food boxes relieved a lot of pressure. Although a box of groceries seems small in the grand scheme of things, the Knowsley Foodbank can make have a huge impact on a family.
People from many different walks of life rely on Knowsley Foodbank – including young people at risk of homelessness, new residents, refugees, individuals just coming out of prison and senior members of our community. For older people or those with mobility restrictions, the foodbank will deliver food boxes straight to them. My husband was born and raised in the local area and I come from the US, so this is a nice way for me to help the local community!
