DETAILS of more than £700,000 handed to charities and good causes through the Bolton Fund to help with work through the pandemic have been published.

The fund brings together grants from Bolton Council, NHS Bolton Clinical Commissioning Group, Bolton at Home and Bolton CVS and is handed to applicants in the community who fulfil certain criteria.

Bolton CVS, which administer the funds, has published where the cash has gone over the past few months.

Between October 2020 and February this year 31 groups were given £250,000 between them under the heading ‘Emergency Food and Essential Supplies’.

The biggest grant was to Bolton At Home, which received £50,000 for the purchase of food to support the establishment of four pantries, including two mobile units across the borough.

Bolton Lads and Girls Club got £28,150 emergency food and essential item parcel delivery, along with support to advise young people and families.

Urban Outreach received two grants of £50,000 and £17,430 respectively.

The larger of the grants was for food stores to support the distribution of emergency food to residents across the borough.

Among the smaller grants were £3,000 to Good Companions and £2,200 to Westhoughton Assist Service.

Under the ‘health and wellbeing’ criteria for grants Henshaws Society for Blind People who provide services for those affected by sight loss in Bolton got £21,000 and Headspace Bolton received £20,000 to work with people who experienced mental illness during lockdown.

Bolton Deaf Society were granted £25,000 to continue to provide an information and advocacy service for people in Bolton who are deaf and hard of hearing.

Smaller grants were given to groups such as 39th Bolton Mountain Scouts, Blackrod Sport and Community Centre, Horwich Harvest Project and Sam’s Warriors.

A spokesman for Bolton CVS, said: “Bolton’s Fund recognises the amazing community action that is taking place across Bolton and we are here to help and support this.”

The CVS is taking applications for the next tranche of grants on their websites.

The areas are ‘Summer Holiday and Activities and Food Fund’ with a deadline of Monday, May 3 , ‘community champions by Friday, April 30 and ‘climate change – promoting sustainability’ with a deadline of Friday, May 21.