The Metalcraft Community Fund has donated £750 to Chatteris Food Bank as part of its quarterly programme of donations to local not-for-profit organisations.

The donation, which has been made earlier than scheduled this week, comes as the local community rallies round to support those in need in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Martin Lawrence, commercial director at Metalcraft, said: “As usual, we received some fantastic applications from local community groups for this quarter’s funding. However, in light of the urgency of the fight against Covid-19 and its impact on the wider community, we felt it was right to make sure this quarter’s donation would benefit as many as possible as quickly as possible.

“With this in mind, we identified the local Food Bank as an organisation that could really benefit from our support and, following discussions with both the committee and all those who had already made applications this quarter, it was agreed that this was the right approach. We have therefore brought forward the donation date from the end of April to the beginning of the month to make sure support reaches those who need it as quickly as possible.

“All applications received this quarter will now be rolled forward for consideration in quarter two, when we all hope we will be heading back towards more normal times.”

Metalcraft has also made a donation of £500 to the North Lakes Food Bank following the recent launch of its Metalcraft Cockermouth Community Fund. The Cockermouth fund was launched in February, building on the success of its Chatteris fund to offer support to not-for-profit organisations near its nuclear customer base.

At the time of the launch, Stephen Buttriss said: “As a supplier to the nuclear industry, we’ve had a long relationship with the county of Cumbria and wanted to give something back to this key community, which has supported our business for over 40 years.

“To date, the Metalcraft Community Fund has given nearly £8,000 to organisations in Cambridgeshire and, following discussions with the local town council, we agreed that a similar scheme could work well for Cockermouth.”

£500 per quarter is being made available to community groups and not-for-profit organisations based in Cockermouth to support specific projects, as opposed to day-to-day running costs. Organisations are also able to apply for practical support from the company, delivered by apprentices on its award-winning scheme.

Anyone interested in applying for the second round of funding from Metalcraft’s community funds can simply fill in an application form at the company’s website (www.metalcraft.co.uk/communityfund).