FIFE Housing Group has donated a further £5,000 to support local charities this Christmas providing assistance to people most in need within their local communities.

West Fife recipients include Dunfermline Foodbank, which has been topped up with further donations from the housing association after help at the start of the pandemic.

Additional donations have also been made to the Dunfermline Children’s Clothing Bank and Fife Gingerbread, whose clients would usually have benefited from their ‘Give a kid a coat’ campaign.

It takes the total sum donated by the organisation this year to £9,000.

Chief executive Nicki Donaldson said: “With the impact of coronavirus continuing to reverberate around the world, a growing number of families throughout Fife are struggling to make ends meet and are being forced to turn to foodbanks and other charities for essential, everyday items.

“Having already donated £4,000 to local foodbanks at the start of the pandemic, we are acutely aware of the fantastic work they do supporting our tenants and others within their community and wanted to do our bit to try and ensure that no-one in our local area has to go without over the festive period.

“As we were unable to run our ‘Give a kid a coat’ campaign in its usual form this year, we also wanted to provide some assistance to other local charities who support the families of some of the 1,500 children who this initiative has helped to keep warm during previous winters.”

The donations were made possible by the generosity of 17 of Fife Housing Group’s contractors, who have signed up to become part of a charitable framework, donating two per cent of their invoiced costs to help deliver projects which benefit local communities.