Providing meals for local homeless people this Christmas

For the second Christmas blighted by the Coronavirus pandemic, Evotech has donated food and hygiene products to the Halifax based Christians Together Calderdale Food Bank, at The Gathering Place. Members of the Elland team donned their Christmas jumpers to purchase enough food from Morrisons to fill two vans and deliver it to the food bank, which has continued to see a substantial increase in requests for emergency food parcels since the beginning of the pandemic. 

Rebecca Dixon, Operations Manager for Christians Together Calderdale says, “We saw a sharp increase in the number of people visiting the food bank from the beginning of March last year and we really appreciate the support of local companies like Evotech who are helping to make individual and family lives better during extreme financial hardship. In 2019 we were handing out approximately 80 parcels a week, but since the onset of the pandemic we have been providing around 190 a week. This donation will help across all our projects including the Food Bank, Banqueting Table (free hot lunches three times a week) and our Winter Shelter. We’d like to thank Evotech on behalf of The Gathering Place.” 

Mark O’Grady, Managing Director at Evotech says, “Whilst Evotech has continued to provide services throughout the pandemic, many sectors have been closed down with some industry sectors having to lay off staff. We have seen first-hand the financial difficulties the pandemic has caused, and we wanted to help the most vulnerable families in our immediate locality to put food on the table over Christmas and to support the food bank to provide hot meals for the local homeless people using the shelter.” 

Based in Elland, Evotech provides mechanical and electrical building maintenance services to both public and private sectors, specialising in the optimisation of building performance to improve the environment for occupants, whilst reducing running costs and carbon emissions. The company’s air quality division is currently supporting local schools with its #CleanAirSchools campaign to monitor indoor air quality and provide solutions to improve ventilation and indoor air pollution, to subsequently provide optimal environments for learning, improve wellbeing and help reduce the risk of virus transmission. 

CTC are a registered charity who hand out food parcels at New Ebenezer Church each week to those who are eligible, run a shelter to keep the homeless temporarily housed and fed during the winter months and their Banqueting Table provides a free hot lunch three times a week for anyone who is in food poverty. All donations help to provide shelter, food and support to those in need and for anyone who would like to support their work, please visit www.ctcthegatheringplace.org/donations