Macc recently managed the latest Spirit of Manchester Fund round of grants which focused on organisations that support people with the cost of living crisis. We will be sharing one story a day in July to show the impact of these grants and the wide range of projects that they supported. Today, we have the story from King Foundation.
"We try to help, support and mentor young boys/youths between the ages of 11 to 21, providing them with life toolkits to becoming gentlemen and responsible men, giving them proper information and guidance on how to stay away from knife crime activities and gangs respectfully with the help of our workshops and seminars, both physical and online (Zoom).
Meanwhile, the struggle has been real, especially in this time of cost of living crisis and a lot of financial struggles that is worse than what we have all experienced years ago. Obviously, it started from the pandemic and until now, a lot of families around our area and community are still finding it difficult to stand tall because of financial struggles and high cost of living which we get to speak with everyone around the need to stand together and comments among the parents also during our workshops and seminars. We as an organisation have also been affected as well as our families, also reminding me of the costs for the venues that we normally use for our workshops which has been increased by the venue owners as well as other materials that we get to buy.
With the help of the £1000 grant, we were able to reach out to as many families as possible within that amount, providing them food stuffs like a bag of rice, carton of tomatoes, groundnut oil and noodles for each family. I was shocked and so surprised at the feedback and responses from the families who benefited from the food stuffs. The feedback was amazing and touching which melted my heart and made me so emotional.
There were so many positive words from the families but there was one family in particular that was crying the moment we delivered the food items to them. This lady was crying and was saying they had never received any gift in their life and that she was just telling her daughter to go to the kitchen and look for what to cook for her younger brother. As a single mother it has been difficult for her and then she said the struggle has been real so the moment she saw the food items, she broke down and started crying which really got to me as well and this has also encouraged me to do more charity and to reach out to many other people possible if the opportunity arises again but all thanks to the grant and to you people.
To be honest, the cost of living is now affecting people's incomes, like another family who also benefited from the grant said that at the end of every month after paying their rents and other direct debit bills, it is usually very difficult for their kids to have extra stuff at home as they now have to measure the things and food at home which they would normally not do so I can boldly say that this grant has touched lives and we cannot wait to have this same opportunity to carry out this project again." Gerald, King Foundation
