Councillor Sarah Jane Colclough, cabinet member for education and anti-poverty, said: “Collaboration work is vital to ensuring all residents are represented and supported. We know the Cost-of-Living crisis impacted people harder than we could ever imagine. Support is out there and I urge anyone struggling to reach out. We want to help communities to come together to support each other.”

Daniel Flynn, Chief Executive Officer at YMCA North Staffordshire advised: “We collectively believe that every person in the city should have access to healthy, tasty, affordable food. We recognise that food is at the heart of some of our city’s most pressing social, economic and environmental problems; however, we also see good food as part of the solution to our communities’ challenges.”

Over the last couple of years, Stoke-on-Trent City Council, alongside voluntary sector partner, VAST pulled together an essential directory to help families all year round, signposting support services, including information for those facing food poverty, financial issues and support with household energy.

The Help is at Hand campaign has been coordinated by the city council in partnership with a range of community and voluntary organisations across the city. The city council has committed to ensuring every resident has access to a financial MoT and is now focusing on ensuring everyone has the nutritional, healthy, affordable food they need.

Information on the range of advice, support and information on offer as part of the Help is at Hand campaign is available at www.stoke.gov.uk/helpisathand.

Interested organisations can find out about upcoming Food Partnership meetings at vast.org.uk/events or email su*****@******rg.uk

VAST currently provides city-wide support to communities in Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire and supports the voluntary, community, and social enterprise sectors.