With Christmas over, our Foodbank has already started to see a dip in donations and we are expecting this to continue until Easter. After the expense of Christmas and with the colder weather, many people who were just about managing to afford the essentials now find they can’t. People are choosing between heating or eating.
We need to make sure our warehouse stays well-stocked with ALL the different items we use in our food parcels. Up until Easter we will be running an AdLent campaign to boost donations and spread the word about the different kinds of items we need.
Lent is an important time in the Christian calendar. It is also a time that many people, religious or not, choose to give up certain luxuries and to think about others. In the spirit of an Advent Calendar, we’ll be asking people to donate from different categories of food or essentials over the 40 days of Lent. So instead of giving something up for Lent, why not consider donating an item each day or each week?
As 40 items is a lot, we suggest you get together with friends or family and donate 40 items between you. This could be a Church community, a class at school or a local business clubbing together to do Adlent.
The themed weeks can help us think about what goes into food parcels and how we can do our best to make sure the basic needs of people in our community are met. We will run reminders on social media of each weekly category.
Here are our six weekly categories:
Week 1: Starting Wednesday 14th Feb
TINNED PROTEIN
- Tinned hot meat: stew, mince, meatballs, chilli con carne, bolognaise.
- Hot dogs: tins or jars
- Tinned cold meat: ham, corned beef, luncheon meat, spam.
- Tinned fish
- Tinned vegetarian meals: vegetarian chilli, bean stew, macaroni cheese.
Week 2: Starting Wednesday 21st Feb
LONG-LIFE PUDDINGS
- Tinned/carton custard
- Sponge pudding
- Tinned rice pudding
- Tinned fruit
- Cereal & cake bars
Week 3: Starting Wednesday 28th Feb
NON-FOOD ITEMS
- Bars of soap
- Deodorant
- Shampoo & shower gel
- Washing-up liquid
- Laundry powder/sheets/liquid
- Cleaner/bleach
- Toilet roll
Week 4: Starting Wednesday 6th March
DRINKS
- Teabags
- Instant coffee
- Long-life milks
- Hot chocolate
- Long-life fruit juice
- Squash/cordials
Week 5: Starting Wednesday 13th March
TINNED FRUIT & VEGETABLES
- Tinned potatoes
- Tinned carrots
- Tinned peas
- Tinned sweetcorn
- Tinned fruit
Week 6: Starting Wednesday 20th March
INSTANT FOODS
- Instant porridge, Ready Brek
- Instant noodles
- Pot noodles
- Biscuits
If you, your workplace, school, church, club, or business would like to collect for us over these six weeks, we’d be incredibly grateful. You’ll be helping to make sure that no-one in our district goes hungry. If your collection is a large one and you’d like us to collect it from you, please do get in touch.
Our warehouse at the Fred Winter Centre (41 Guild Street) is open on Mondays 2-4.30pm, Wednesday 2-4.30pm and Saturdays 9.30am-12pm.
Any questions, please email us at [email protected]
Thank you
