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A charity has kick-started a new campaign to end child poverty in the borough with help from Wigan Warriors.

A shocking 60 per cent of families are expected to be eligible for free school meals by the end of the current academic year – an increase of 43 per cent since 2016-17 – according to data from the Department of Education.

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It will mean more families forced to skip meals and unable to pay bills as a result of inflation, including those who have previously been able to manage during the school holidays.

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More people will also need to turn to organisations for help, such as homelessness and poverty charity The Brick.

To tackle this head on, The Brick has launched a new campaign to raise money, ensuring it can continue to provide essential services to those in need in Wigan borough.

Wigan Warriors endorsed the appeal for funds by being the first to donate by text message.

Known as the Text Brick £1 campaign, the charity aim to prevent families from going without food during the school holidays amid the cost-of-living crisis.

Wendy Doherty, head of fund-raising and Partnerships at The Brick, said: “The UK is facing a perfect storm of increasing prices, higher interest rates, soaring bills, and with inflation reaching its highest rate for 30 years, more and more families will be pushed into poverty.

“We wanted to launch a campaign that everyone can contribute to, and by texting just £1, people can help us to continue to provide emergency food parcels.”

Martin Mcloughlin, head of community at Wigan Warriors, said: “We support everything that The Brick does to help those in our community, and as soon as we heard about this campaign with the aim to end child poverty, we had to get on board.”

Donations will be used to bulk buy items for emergency food parcels, purchase essential items such as toiletries and cleaning products, and make nutritional meals accessible for all, with fresh fruit and vegetables.

People can give as little as £1 by simply texting BRICK£1 (or BRICK£2, BRICK£3, BRICK5) to 70480.

Alternatively, donate online at www.justgiving.com/campaign/TEXTBRICK1

Charity launches bid to end child poverty with help from Wigan Warriors