“I came to this area 40 years ago and never left,” Christine “Welshy” Gavano, 56, says of Ashton-under-Lyne as she’s preparing bags of fresh vegetables and cupboard staples that local families will pick up later in the day.
Mother-of-three and grandmother Christine volunteers at the Smallshaw Hurst Community Action Group, a local service helping people in Broadoak & Smallshaw, Hurst Cross and Hazel Hurst get through the cost of living crisis.
When she’s not at the action group, she will usually be found volunteering at the Action Group's pantry store, the Ashton United In the Community Luncheon Club for older people on Wednesdays and with Cedar Park Chefs.
“I volunteer in the community most days,” Christine says. “I never stop, there’s no rest for me.”
The pantry store provides families with a weekly £3 food bag, alongside recipes for using ingredients in the bag with an estimation of just how much gas and electricity it will cost to make.
Christine says it is a service that has become even more essential in recent weeks, with families needing to know where every single penny goes. Families will also get to learn how to prepare nutritious meals, like chilli con carne or a lentil dahl.
“Families at the moment are finding it really, really hard,” Christine explains. “They’re deciding whether they sit in the cold and eat and whether they sit in the warm and don't get to eat anything.
"We’ve not seen poverty like this before, and some families on our estate are very low but we have got a good community - they can knock on anybody's door and we’ll look after them.”
Christine says that she has now referred many people in the local area to use Smallshaw Hurst Community Action Group whether it’s for food supplies, for advice or just a sit down with a brew.
She explains that many people have felt put off from using the service out of pride, not wanting to accept that they could maybe do with some assistance. Christine explains she’s got a tested formula to ensure that pride is never a barrier for getting help.
“When it first opened, families wouldn't come because of pride,” she says. “Some thought they'd phone social services and some have mental health issues and won't leave the house.
“I encouraged them to come and use the pantry and I even go and knock on their doors sometimes saying: 'I'm coming today, you be ready, and you come with me.'”
“People don’t always know there’s others in the same situation, they feel embarrassed like they’re the only ones. It's more than a food pantry though, they’ll tell me if they've got illnesses, a problem, anything going on behind closed doors that needs to be aired.
“I enjoy trying to help families. Many of them feel like my family too now because I've been here 40 years and they seem to come to me for everything. If they've got an issue with the council, or food, I'll always put them in the right direction of where to go.
“There are 144 houses on our estate. I don't always know the new ones who move in straight away but I always go and say hello, ‘if you ever need anything just give me a knock if I can help you out’.”
Christine, who is featured this week as a 'Cost of Living Champion' by Save The Children to coincide with International Women's Day, says she hopes the work she and her fellow volunteers do will inspire others and show that a strong sense of community is especially important today.
She says she also hopes that she can follow the same lessons her mother taught her growing up.
“I think I started doing this work because I’d seen my mum do the same sort of thing,” Christine explains. “When we were little my mum used to organise all the coach trips for where we lived – she was the one out there in the community.
“Now I’m trying to involve the next generation, my daughters, my friends. They think they can't do it, but they've done amazing so far. They’ve got determination.”
Save The Children are working with some of the UK's biggest charities and organisations to pull together resources to help support people during the cost of living crisis. You can find out more about Together Through This Crisis here.
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