Barrow Foodbank has been awarded a £3,000 grant from the Cadent Foundation after being voted for by customers across the region.

The charity, which is part of the Trussell Trust network of foodbanks, is one of 12 to receive a share of a £25,000 grant fund in the second round of the Cadent Foundation’s ‘Connecting Colleagues, Customers and Communities’ initiative.

The Cadent Foundation is funded by gas network Cadent, and employees were asked to nominate local charities which were then shortlisted to go forward to a public vote.

More than 1,500 customers took part in the voting process with Rainbow Hub being awarded the top grant of £3,000.

Ambleside Action for a Future was voted runner-up and will receive a £2,000 grant.

Barrow Foodbank was founded in 2012 by local churches and community groups, working together towards stopping hunger.

It serves 15 communities in Barrow, Millom and Ulverston that are within the 15 per cent most deprived areas in England.

Claire Coulthurst, project manager at Barrow Foodbank, said: “Here at Barrow Foodbank, we were overjoyed to just be nominated by Cadent but the fact we have been successful thank you to the generous votes of the public is completely overwhelming.

“The money awarded to us will ensure we can continue our vital service by contributing to overheads and the running of our van which we use to deliver food parcels to service users in their home, take food to our Millom and Ulverston Foodbank’s and also to collect food from our permanent collection points in shops and supermarkets five days a week.

Barrow Foodbank was nominated for the scheme by Cadent customer engagement manager, Rebecca Hewitson.

She said: “I used to live in Barrow and have seen first-hand the high level of need there is within the town. When I heard about the Cadent Foundation’s community grant scheme, I thought this was a perfect opportunity to do something to help support them and to thank them for all of their hard work and dedication.”