The Northampton Hope Centre has been at the forefront of tackling poverty and homelessness in the town or the past 45 years.

The charity’s mantra has always been to offer a hand-up, rather than a hand-out, and as such it is currently supporting more than 60 rough sleepers every night, as well as helping the one-in-four local families who regularly skip meals due to food poverty.

From a business perspective Hope Centre also delivers training and support to get people into employment, while the charity’s food club supplies those on low incomes which barely cover rent, heat and clothing needs.

“We have several corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects on offer for organisations who would like to get their staff involved with work that makes a real difference to people’s lives,” explains Louise Danielczuk, Hope Centre Fundraising and Marketing Manager.

“One of the most important areas we need help with is our highly successful Hope Food Club. Based on a social supermarket model, we take all of the food donated to us and then sort it into date order in our warehouse ahead of distribution.

“We need volunteers to help sort these donations at our warehouse in Kingsthorpe, and are looking for more corporate groups to work on our allotments. After a full year of planting all of this produce goes into the Hope Centre’s kitchens or is sold through the food club.

“We were thrilled to recently welcome 40 staff members from Levi Strauss & Co who joined us on the allotments, followed by another 40 from Cummins UK. We also welcome individuals. Whether they’re digging or planting, everyone who takes part says they really feel like they’ve helped those who need our services the most – and they have!”