Gary Lightbody, of Snow Patrol, has donated £10k to five different foodbanks across Northern Ireland, in an effort to combat ongoing food poverty.

He also donated £10k to Charis Cancer Care Fund, which offers counseling and a wide variety of therapies for people with cancer, and £10k to React, which offers rapid effective assistance for children with potentially terminal illnesses.

Altogether he has donated £70k across seven charities.

He announced the generous donations via his Instagram today.

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A post shared by Gary Lightbody (@garysnowpatrol)

The donation comes after it is estimated that around 10 million people in the UK live in households who have endured experiences of food poverty.

A person or household is considered to be in food poverty, more often known as food insecurity, when they cannot “consistently afford and access sufficient healthy and nutritious food”, by one government definition, or if they do not have “access at all times to enough food that is both sufficiently varied and culturally appropriate to sustain an active and healthy life”, according to the Food Standards Agency (FSA).

Gary Lightbody launched The Lightbody Foundation in partnership with the Community Foundation to give to charities in Northern Ireland

The Lightbody Foundation has awarded over £100m to groups and organisations across Northern Ireland in just 40 years.

Such donations contribute to education, health, housing, the arts, social justice, employment, peace, and reconciliation.

They are rooted in a tradition of community connections, risk-taking, and innovation and they help smaller, community-led organisations that work directly with people who are at the margins of society.

For more information regarding The Lightbody Foundation see here.

Revisit the Hot Press interview with Gary Lightbody here.