THE charity Action Together has hailed the volunteers in the Tameside area - including Ashton and Mossley - who came forward after a call in March for to help in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

More than 400 local residents responded and registered as volunteers to offer their time to support vulnerable people in need of help.

Volunteers have been undertaking a number of roles from delivering food parcels, to welfare door checks, to leafleting their local communities to ask for doorstep donations of food and unwanted items such as jigsaws and old laptops.

Volunteer Anita Cowling explained: “I found that I had some spare time and I wanted to do something useful, to help the people in need in my community.

"I work part time and this volunteer role allows to me to donate my time flexibly around that.”

She continued :“We have been really surprised by the generosity of our neighbours. We were so pleased with the response we got on our first day of volunteering.

"We have really enjoyed carrying out the role and it has given us the chance to meet some of our neighbourhoods that we have not spoken to before. We collected 32 bags of food, books, jigsaws, and other items. We cannot wait to get out and do some more.”

In the first two weeks alone, the doorstep donation scheme saw more than 700 bags of food collected and donated to foodbanks in Tameside.

This is helped to ease the strain on foodbanks, which are experiencing increased demand on their services during the pandemic and working extremely hard to support local communities.

Heather, from Tameside East Foodbank, said they “have been completely blown away” by the generosity of local communities.

She said: “We have been receiving an unbelievable amount of donations through the doorstop donation scheme, you have all been incredibly kind and we are extremely grateful.”

Other donated items such as craft materials and books are being delivered to people unable to leave their homes during the pandemic. Action Together are working in partnership with Tameside Buddy Project, to ensure people receive support and combat isolation.

Anyone who would like to volunteer can register their details at https://www.actiontogether.org.uk/volunteering

Food donations can be made directly to local foodbank or contact Action Together who can arrange for food to be collected, tel: 0161 339 2345; email: info@actiontogether.org.uk or visit www.actiontogether.org.uk.).

Action Together helps groups in Oldham, Rochdale and Tameside.