A FUND to help voluntary groups across the county deal with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic has raised £200,000 in just two weeks.

The Wiltshire Community Foundation’s Coronavirus Response Fund has already made £83,000 worth of grants to voluntary groups across Wiltshire and Swindon.

In the first week of the fund being open for applicants, grants were used by groups to provide hot meals, food parcels, counselling, equipment and staff to help vulnerable and isolated elderly people, rough sleepers, young families living in poverty and those suffering stress and anxiety.

Wiltshire Scrapstore will use a £2,500 grant to fund 500 art boxes for children of low income or isolated families. It has already sent 80 out.

Director Jane Wheeler said: “The craft boxes have all the things you need to support home learning, there are exercise books and pens, glue, scissors, lots of colourful paper and writing paper with envelopes. There are creative things to do creative projects.

“We are very specifically working with schools who have families with the highest need. The families may be in isolation or there are families where the parents have lost their jobs and been made redundant.”

Age UK has been given £2,750 for two new freezers at its base in Toothill Swindon for its Community Hot Meals Service, which has expanding into Malmesbury Chippenham and Calne

Director of Services Simon Billingham said: “We have got the challenge of the size of the county so this grant makes a real difference to us because we can make an almost instant investment in two freezers, which allows us to hold more stock. More stock in our supply chain allows us to deliver more rounds further afield into Wiltshire.”

Homeless charity Doorway in Chippenham has received £3,000 to buy food parcels for rough sleepers. Chief executive Joanna Kitching said the charity’s supply chain of food has all but dried up. “The money is going towards the fact we are not getting the donations from churches, schools and community groups that we are used to getting. People aren’t really donating at supermarkets the way they were either,” she said.

“This grant is so helpful because it will allow us to keep going with supporting these very vulnerable people.”

Malmesbury Foodbank has also been affected by a drop in donations and has been given £2,000 to top up its supplies while advice service HEALS in Malmesbury has received £1,900 to support isolated families.

Among the latest supporters of the fund is the Zurich Community Trust, which has donated £25,000.

Wiltshire Community Foundation Interim Co-Chief Executive Fiona Oliver said: “We have been absolutely bowled over by the response from the public and from the support of companies like Zurich.

“I’m also very proud of the way our team has responded so quickly to raise this money and then get it out to where it is needed. The need is only going to increase in the coming weeks, and we urgently need the support of the county more than ever to help our vital community groups navigate this unprecedented challenge.”Go to wiltshirecf.org.uk.