A newly elected Conservative politician has denied that she profits from an app for foodbanks
A newly elected Tory MP has denied that she profits from an app for foodbanks.
Miriam Cates, who was elected in Penistone and Stocksbridge in South Yorkshire, has come under fire for running an app that charges organisations to list the food items they need.
The app, entitled Foodbank, charges foodbanks £180 to register and subscribe. The i newspaper reported it was launched in 2014 through Cates’ company Redemption Media, but its copyright holder is listed as Donate Technologies, a company owned by her husband Dave Cates.
In a lengthy Facebook post, Cates denied the newspaper’s claims that she had made profit from the app.
“A story is circulating that implies – completely incorrectly - that I have some how tried to ‘make profit’ from foodbanks,'" she said.
“My husband and I own and run a small software company. Around six years ago, after conversations with our local S6 Foodbank, we developed an app to help the S6 Foodbank to increase the number of food donations they received, by alerting supporters to tell them what items were needed. We developed the app for free, using our time, resources, staff and money and did not charge S6 Foodbank for its use. The commercial cost of an app like this would be tens of thousands of pounds – we developed it for free.
“The app was a great success for the S6 Foodbank and local media covered the story at the time. My husband I appeared on Radio Sheffield and in various other local press. Other foodbanks approached us to see if they could have their own version of the app, so we made some updates and improvements and rolled it out to foodbanks across the country.”
She continued: “As a small business we did not have the resources to continue to develop the app for free so we had to charge foodbanks a small set up charge to allow us to continue to support and update the app. However this fee works out at less than the monthly cost of a Just Giving subscription – something that the foodbanks get for free using our app. Foodbanks also saw their financial donations increase directly as a result of the app.
“This app cost us – and continues to cost us – thousands of pounds to develop and support, far more than we will ever reclaim. We created it because we saw a need and wanted to help.”
