The Gannett Foundation, the charitable arm of The Northern Echo's parent company, is providing £128,000 in cash to support charities across the country.
The Foundation asked the public to decide where this money should go.
People nominated in their thousands and a shortlist of 10 charities in each region will now be in with a shout of sharing in the £16,000 giveaway.
The Angel Trust in Bishop Auckland is one of these charities doing great things in the local area.
The charity has a foodbanks, a community pantry, grants wishes for those in desperate need, and its newest venture is a cookery school.
Read more: Readers' Choice: Charity helping families bereaved by suicide to win share of £16K
Clair McGregor, founder of The Angel Trust, said: “We do loads of different things, our foodbank is very popular and people get referred to that often. We also have a community pantry which relies on donations.
“In the course of our work with the Foodbank it has quickly become apparent that our service users require support with cooking skills and healthy eating advice, specifically young families and the elderly. We plan to create a Cookery School to offer free classes teaching economical and nutritious recipes to those most in need e.g healthy options for children, 4 meals from a chicken, cooking for 1 etc. This grant would help us with equipment and appliances towards this project.
“From the beginning we’ve adapted to the needs of the community. We set up the foodbank because that’s what people needed and we’ll keep adapting to what they need.”
The charity also provides social events for the local community including Ladies Day at Hardwick Hall, and for this year’s event Martin Kemp entertained the crowds.
For those already living on the breadline prior to the pandemic and current cost-of-living crisis, life was hard enough and The Angel Trust was founded in 20128 with the intention of doing whatever the community required to improve quality of life for those at most risk of falling through the cracks.
Read next:
- The North East kids' charity getting a slice of £16k from Northern Echo prize
- Hundreds nominated for Northern Echo charity cash scheme - here's just a few
- Readers' Choice Cash for Charities: The charities from the North East YOU voted for
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