Edinburgh charities boosted by Amazon team donations

Edinburgh charities Streetwork and Edinburgh Food Project have welcomed donations totalling £10,000 from Amazon Development Centre Scotland.

Streetwork, a service provided by Simon Community Scotland, has been offering care and guidance to those who are experiencing homeless or at risk of homelessness in Edinburgh for 25 years.

The charity provides expert advice and compassionate support, working to connect people to the services they need. The mission of the charity is to enable a life off the streets, showing dignity and respect to everyone.

The charity works with City of Edinburgh Council, so staff have direct links to accommodation that is available immediately. The charity also offers a 24-hour freephone line that provides information for anyone who needs it. 

Edinburgh Food Project operates eight foodbanks across the northwest, central and east of Edinburgh. The charity also offers a range of support to people including housing and benefits advice, a money advice service and a mental health and wellbeing project. 

Edinburgh Food Project’s mission is to provide emergency support to people in crisis whilst also addressing the underlying causes of food poverty. 

Commenting on the donation, Graeme Smith, Managing Director at Amazon Development Centre Scotland, said: “We are pleased to support Streetwork and Edinburgh Food Project with these donations.

“We understand how difficult the last year has been for people at risk of hunger and homelessness and these charities have gone above and beyond to support the Edinburgh community.”

Lorraine McGrath, Chief Executive, with Simon Community Scotland added: “We want to say a big thank you to the Amazon team for this donation. It means a lot to us to have this support at this time.

“COVID-19 has had a huge impact on the community and the demand for our services have rocketed. This donation will give our staff and volunteers a boost so we can continue to help those experiencing the most extreme impacts of homelessness including rough sleeping in Edinburgh.”

Angus Robertson, MSP for Edinburgh Central, said: “I welcome Amazon’s donation to Streetwork and Edinburgh Food Project, two important charities making a positive impact in the city.”

Amazon Development Centre Scotland has been based in Edinburgh since 2004 and is responsible for devising and growing innovations that bring new levels of choice and convenience to hundreds of millions of customers around the world. 

It houses teams of leading engineers, scientists, designers and product managers who work on everything from interactive user interface design to large-scale distributed systems and machine learning. 

Community donations are one of a number of ways in which Amazon is supporting communities across the UK during COVID-19. 

Throughout the pandemic Amazon has provided disadvantaged students with free online STEM resources and supported virtual classrooms with no-cost resources from AWS and Amazon Future Engineer.

The company has also teamed up with charity partner Magic Breakfast to deliver more than four million healthy breakfasts to children at risk of hunger in disadvantaged areas around the UK.

For more information on how Amazon is supporting the UK during COVID-19, click here.

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davepickering

Edinburgh reporter and photographer