GRANTS of more than £100,000 have been awarded to groups and charities helping families stay warm and fed over the winter.

The money, totalling £102,000, comes through the Dorset Community Foundation’s BCP Food and Energy Support Fund, in partnership with BCP Council.

There are 26 organisations across the area receiving money, with a range of initiatives and schemes being supported.

This includes opening welcoming warm spaces with hot food and refreshments, and community food projects including meals, vouchers and food parcels.

One organisation to receive £7,500 is Christchurch Community Partnership.

The group will use the money to run a monthly roast dinner and a weekly lunch club in the town centre for older people who are at risk of becoming isolated over the winter.

Chief executive Sandra Prudom said: “We have long been aware of the lack of any provision for many of our isolated residents, who don't have family locally, or even at all.

“Our work during the Covid pandemic also made us aware of the issues around hidden hunger for many of them, as theirs is a generation not brought up to ask for help.”

Another £7,500 was allocated to Faithworks Wessex, on behalf of BCP’s Access to Food Partnership.

The organisation is piloting a food storage space so when groups receive unexpected donations of food, they have somewhere to store it temporarily, before being sent to those who need it.

Chief executive and chair of the Access to Food Partnership, Alistair Doxat-Purser, said: “Staff from Feed Our Community, with many others from other projects, were up until 3am on Christmas Eve last year trying to distribute frozen turkeys donated by supermarkets at closing time. This happens at predictable times like harvest season and unpredictable times, when catering freezers break down.

“The One Stop Glut Hut will enable smaller community food projects make the most of donations, enabling them to support BCP households with good quality food.”

Bournemouth Foodbank has received £1,000 to run cooking on a budget classes, and Hope Housing, Training and Support has been given £2,500 to run classes for vulnerable former homeless people it houses.

Poole Methodist Church also received £7,500. It will provide free hot meals for children from low-income families and rough sleepers at its Wesley’s Community Café in the Spire.

Cllr Millie Earl, deputy leader of the council and portfolio holder for connected communities said: “These valuable and much-needed community schemes will offer help to our residents – whether they want to keep warm, save on heating costs or need access to food. I look forward to seeing the positive difference these projects will make in our local communities.”

Dorset Community Foundation chief executive Grant Robson said: “All of these projects are making a massive difference and thanks to this funding a lot of families and individuals will be better fed, better cared for and made to feel a part of their community.”

The fund uses money allocated to the council from the government’s Household Support Fund.