Four national charities will each receive £75,000 from The Health Lottery Foundation to help meet increased demand over Christmas.
- FoodCycle – delivers community meal sessions across the UK, providing hot, nutritious meals and festive gatherings for people facing food insecurity.
- Beauty Banks – supplies hygiene essentials like soap, toothpaste and deodorant to people living in hygiene poverty through food banks and support services.
- Crisis – offers accommodation and support for people experiencing homelessness, including hotel stays and specialist care during Christmas.
- Dreams Come True – helps children with disabilities or life-limiting conditions in deprived areas by delivering individual and community dreams, such as adapted equipment and sensory spaces.
FoodCycle will use its grant to deliver around 620 community meal sessions, serving more than 21,000 three-course meals across the UK, including 80 Christmas meals. Funding will also cover decorations, crackers and cards to make the festive season special for guests.
Beauty Banks will allocate £15,000 per region to supply hygiene essentials to hub charities in Brighton, Croydon, Aberdeen and Winsford, supporting around 210 charities for three months. The grant also supports its Christmas Gifting Fund, which will distribute 4,000 gifts to charity partners.
Crisis will use the funding to provide hotel rooms in London for 378 people who would otherwise be sleeping rough and support 5,500 people nationwide through day centres and frontline services. This includes a new 41-bed women-only hotel in East London offering private rooms, hot meals and one-to-one casework support.
Dreams Come True will deliver dreams to 1,560 children through four community projects and 10 individual dreams. Projects include adapted trikes in Merseyside, a playground refit in Buckie and sensory areas in Inverclyde and Glasgow.
