NFU Mutual Agents and their staff at the Ruthin agency recently nominated Vale of Clwyd Foodbank to receive a donation of £6,443 from NFU Mutual’s national £1.92million ‘Agency Giving Fund’.

The rural insurer has launched this fund, now in its fourth year, to help local frontline charities across the country.

The Agency Giving Fund forms part of NFU Mutual’s £3.25m funding pledge for both local and national charities in 2023, to assist with recovery from the pandemic and to help tackle the impact of the rising cost of living.

To ensure these donations reach all corners of the UK and are directed where they’re needed most, all NFU Mutual Agencies, with more than 295 offices nationwide, have been given the opportunity to nominate local charities to receive a share of the fund.

Mark Owen chair of Vale of Clwyd Foodbank, said: “Banc Bwyd Dyffryn Clwyd/Vale of Clwyd Foodbank is a small charity run entirely by volunteers, working together towards stopping hunger in our local area. We have two depots, one in Denbigh and the other in Ruthin.

"Our client base has grown significantly in the last 12 months, and we have seen more and more people from rural communities seek our support.

"The donation from NFU Mutual will make a big difference to us. We have been looking at ways to reduce the administrative burden on our volunteers whilst in turn ensuring that how we operate is safe and sustainable now and into the future. We want to project manage the organisation's activities that are constantly evolving in response to the multi-faceted pressures that people are facing in the county.

"We have had the ambition of securing support from a project manager for quite some time but have not wanted to divert funding, that we have collected to support our clients, to do this. The donation from NFU Mutual will now enable us to do this.

"The significant donation made by NFU Mutual will enable us to actually fund this post, initially on a temporary basis, with the hope that we can later sustain it in the longer term.”

Carys Jones, agent at NFU Mutual Ruthin added: “We’re extremely proud to have nominated Banc Bwyd Dyffryn Clwyd/Vale of Clwyd Foodbank for this donation and are delighted to be able to support the vital contribution they make to our community.

"NFU Mutual’s Agency Giving Fund was first created in 2020 in response to the pandemic, and this ongoing support is helping to change lives, providing both much needed support and building long-term resilience."