A CALL has been made for a network of support for Coventry charities and community organisations as the city faces high levels of poverty and record demand for struggling services.
The call has been made by Sunny Braitch, who founded the Sky Blue Support project two and a half years ago.
The project provides hot meals and food parcels to those in need, holding street feeds in Willenhall or Hillfields at 1pm on alternating Saturdays using donations from local businesses such as Binley Mega Chippy and major chains including Sainsbury’s, Nandos and KFC.
Now Sunny, who already uses his connections to help other Coventry charities, believes an online hub could be created so charities could support each other more.
More than 31,400 Coventry children were in poverty in 2021/22 while last autumn the number of people sleeping rough in a single night in the city rose for the second successive year.
Coventry Foodbank recently reported unprecedented demand for its services, while Clothing Coventry has recently reported financial struggles and homelessness charity Crisis has announced plans to close its Coventry centre.
Sunny told the Observer: “We get food deliveries seven days a week but mainly do our feeds on a Saturday, so whatever is left over we donate to groups such as the Salvation Army and Hope Community Project.
“A lot of people are struggling and we know charities and community organisations are facing increased pressure too.
“We used to get big crates of food from supermarkets but last week we only received two loaves of bread- but when we’ve struggled for donations Coventry foodbank has stepped in and offered us what they can.
“That just goes to show you that networking and sharing your resources works, what we need now is something like this on a larger scale to make sure the food and other resources get to people who need it most.”
Sunny suggested creating a website page where people can log the dates and times of their charity events and also easily contact other organisations if they’re struggling for resources.
“I don’t think this would take long to set up, it will stop things going to waste and help people who are in need.
“We’d all love to make Coventry a better place and we can achieve that if we all work together, someone just needs to glue all the fantastic organisations in the city together.”
Contact Sky Blue Support via its Facebook page if anyone has further thoughts on creating a network or is interested in joining.
