The Volunteering Society has recently been awarded a grant of £1,000 to be donated to Start-Up Stirling, a local charity in Stirling which provides emergency food supplies through food packs and home starter packs to help families and individuals within the local community.
This Community Plus grant has been awarded to Start-Up Stirling from Santander from the Santander Foundation, where they offer grants of up to £5,000 towards local charities or projects to help disadvantages people such as families within the local community.
Start-Up Stirling is a registered charity which serves Stirling within Central Scotland. The charity operates to assist and support families and individuals experiencing homelessness and financial hardship by providing crisis food packs, home starter and wellbeing packs, as well as offering listening and befriending support, with Start-Up Stirling being able to reach out and support vulnerable individuals and families who may find it difficult to cope with their current financial or housing difficulties.
Simron Kandola, President of the Volunteering Society spoke of his amazement in donating £1,000 to Start-Up Stirling saying:
It was amazing to know that Santander awarded a £1,000 grant to Start-Up Stirling. They are an amazing charity who directly help and supports families and individuals within the community who are living in poverty. The grant will go directly towards emergency food supplies and home starter packs to provide families with emergency food over Christmas and during the winter period this year.
I want to thank Santander for their amazing generosity to award Start-Up Stirling with this life-changing grant to help local communities, as well as a special thank you to everyone within the Stirling Students’ Union who have supported us to raise the awareness of Start-Up Stirling on campus. Furthermore, a special thank you goes to Alban Dickson and Lauren Marriott who organised the V-Team trip to Start-Up Stirling on 21st October and a massive thank you to Cameron Reid and Caroll Ewen, Secretary and Treasurer of the Volunteering Society for their amazing contribution, support and guidance to help Start-Up Stirling.
The Volunteering Society are currently organising events on behalf of Start-Up Stirling to raise the awareness and support towards the charity, with events such as ‘Donate A Can’ Week at the end of November and Food Donation Points allocated at the student accommodation in December to allow students to donate their unwanted food to Start-Up Stirling, with further ideas including a Student Ambassador position for Start-Up Stirling and a Food Wastage Campaign next semester.
For more information, or if you would like to take part in helping Start-Up Stirling, you can email the Volunteering Society at volsocus@gmail.com.