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Queues started to form outside the door of St Luke’s church on 22nd December two hours before the official opening to our Christmas Hamper Saturday.
Marshalls, packers and the welcome team took their positions. Face painters and children’s’ entertainers gathered at the South London Theatre ready to host families during their wait for hampers. Once the day was in full swing, hundreds of bountiful bags of food were provided to grateful clients.
One client said ‘The children’s entertainment was crazy and brilliant. My kids had so much fun they didn’t want to leave’, while another client tearfully told us ‘I am lost for words, I wasn’t expecting all this, I am so happy right now’.All our volunteers would agree it was an absolute privilege to be able to help so many to have a worry-free Christmas this year |
4.8 tonnes of food were gathered at our three-day Supermarket Collection at the beginning of this month.Based at Tesco in Brixton and in Streatham, volunteers gave out shopping lists and packed boxes with energy and enthusiasm.
We are particularly grateful to employees from UK Power Networks who came to volunteer in their droves.
Thank you so much to everyone who volunteered or donated to help us support people in crisis this winter.
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We have so many people to thank for their support in 2018… our incredible team of volunteers, our donors however big or small, schools, churches, superstores and corporate organisations… we are SO grateful.
Our December thank you list includes all the schools who donated and the corporate teams from BP, Unilever and Tesco who helped sort and pack parcels in advance of our big Christmas Hamper Saturday.
A special mention to Focus Lighting Wimbledon for providing a van and driver to move stock and The South London Theatre for providing space for children’s activities during the Hamper handouts. |
A very big thank you to Local Greens who provided us with fresh fruit and veg for our Christmas Hamper Saturday.
It allowed us to give our a wide range of fresh produce in our clients’ Christmas hampers.
One client said ‘We are so grateful for all this fresh food. We have the grandkids coming for Christmas and I wasn’t sure how we were going to feed them. I especially loved the yam!’
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We received the following email from Foodbank supporter, India, and we thought we’d share it for some Christmas cheer – a big thank you to India and to everyone else who has fundraised for us this year!
‘Hello, my family recently raised £200 for Foodbank.
‘For my dad’s birthday we did a big dinner and we asked each of the guests to bring donations instead of gifts, everyone was so encouraging and generous and we were so pleased to raise this much. I then hosted a Christmas dinner party and asked my friends to do the same. To not have enough food and necessities for your family must be especially difficult at this time of year and we hope that our donation will go a little way in making this Christmas a bit easier for some of the families and people you work with.’ |
I am sure most of you have heard the super-fun Christmas No.1 from Ladbaby, ‘We built this city on sausage rolls’, with all proceeds being donated to the Trussell Trust.
What an inspiring family and uplifting song – give it another listen here and perhaps buy yourself the single as an early Christmas present!
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We hope you enjoyed our reverse advent calendar challenge in December. If you still have food to donate then the next available date will be between 9-11 am on Saturday, 5th January at our warehouse at St Margaret’s Church, Barcombe Ave, SW2 3BH. See our website for more delivery location information.
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As the temperature drops we want to ensure our clients are well provided for. That is why we are gratefully receiving new hot water bottles (with covers) to help keep clients warm at night. Another request is for donations of shopping trolleys which are a huge help for clients who can sometimes struggle to carry heavier items of food home. If you are able to help with either item please drop them off to our Streatham warehouse on a Saturday between 9-11 am.
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We are requesting donations of reusable canvas bags to help us pack our clients’ food parcels. Not only are these stronger than the plastic bags but they are also environmentally friendly and can be returned by our clients should they need to use our service again in the future. |
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