A local Community Interest Company that provides support to young families and parents in Abergavenny are raising funds to help parents feed their children during the summer holidays.

Cwtch Angels started and runs the Abergavenny Community Fridge at Unit 2, Hatherleigh Place, West Union Road, NP7 7RL. The Community Fridge was started by Annie Hartwright and is run by Annie and a group of volunteers. Cwtch Angels are currently raising funds to provide our Summer Holiday Hunger programme.

The Summer holiday hunger is designed to help parents struggling through the Summer holidays to feed their children.

Volunteers regularly source through items donated from local people ready to redistribute to others in the community who might otherwise not be able to afford them.

The group work closely with and are sponsored by Monmouthshire County Council, POBL, Abergavenny Town Council, Monmouthshire Housing, Hubbub, Morrisons and Waitrose.

Supermarkets Waitrose and Morrisons regularly donate items to the volunteers’ community fridge, and although it has been open for a year many people are still unaware it exists.

Annie said: “We receive great support from local supermarkets as well as Abergavenny Town Council and Monmouthshire County Council. As we have only been open a year we are extremely grateful for their help and support, as without them we couldn’t exist. We don’t require any form filling, we just help.”

The group hold a number of seasonal donation events including annual Uniform days where the public donate their pre-loved uniforms and volunteers give them back out to the public free of charge.

In November and December, a toy event is held where excellent condition toys are donated to parents to give to children ahead of Christmas, to save the stress for parents struggling to buy new toys.

Cwtch Angels also provide bags of shopping which they hand out every Friday to members of the community, even delivering to those who can’t physically get to them.

Speaking about their programme, Annie added: “During school time, many children receive free meals and snacks at school to ensure they receive healthy meals. There is currently no provision made for helping parents and kids while there is no school and as such, they children go without.

“Many children love the summer break and will count down to the last days of school. But for the children and families we support, the long six-week holiday can be a very daunting time. Families facing issues of poverty, housing and hunger struggle to cope over the Summer. Merely finding enough money to buy food is difficult and next to impossible. Especially with all the rising energy prices. Anything we can do as volunteers to support parent struggling during this time is important to us, but we to go further we need help and support from the local community. We have already raised most of the funds to run the programme, but any donations from the public towards this very worthy cause would be greatly appreciated. As volunteers we would like to thank everyone for their support.”