Nourish Community Foodbank has launched their annual Community Christmas Campaign. Mindful that many people’s household budgets are stretched this year, they are simply asking people to give what they can, to help people in food poverty in the borough this Christmas. Traditionally the charity sees a spike in demand for food over the festive period, but during the year they have seen a huge drop in food contributions, so they are urgently appealing for more donations.
The popular 12 days of Christmas campaign will start on Sunday 1 December, and this year the charity is asking people to only buy as many items as they can afford, up to 12 items across the first 12 days of December. The list includes staples such as tinned foods, squash, tea bags, cereal and toiletries alongside small Christmas treats, which make a real difference to families who can’t afford any special extras. The list can be found in the photo below.
Supporters can drop donations to the Nourish Warehouse on Saturday 14 December between 10am – 4pm at Unit 5, Kingstanding Way (opposite Bookers Cash & Carry). Alternatively food can be donated any time at one of the Nourish food donation stations across the borough that are published on the map here .
Once again, the RTW Round Table’s magical illuminated sleigh will be transporting Santa to visit many areas of Tunbridge Wells over an extended nine day period from Saturday 7 – Sunday 15 December and will be collecting food donations for Nourish. Dawn Stanford, Operations Director from Nourish comments: “The charity is indebted to the RTW Round Table for giving Nourish this opportunity to collect donations from people’s houses, along with the incredible support they, and the Pantiles Rotary Club, give unloading and sorting all the donations in the warehouse each evening. They have made a huge difference to the support we can offer over Christmas, last year they collected 6.8 tonnes of food over the week!” The routes can be found here www.rtwrt.org/santa-sleigh .
Those who wish to make a financial donation can donate via text by typing e.g. FOOD £5 or FOOD £20 to 70085 (up to £40), this could help cover the costs of a Christmas dinner for a family in crisis this Christmas.
Dawn adds: “Christmas is always a difficult time for many of our local residents, with increased food and energy costs challenging them more than ever before. Nourish remains committed to ensuring that nobody goes hungry in our community, but this year, we really need some help to make sure that happens. We are all feeling the pinch and I appreciate it’s a struggle at the moment, but if you can just spare enough for an extra tin of soup or a bag of chocolate coins, when you are doing your weekly shop, it will make a huge difference to someone in crisis. You may not be aware, but there are hundreds of people in our town having to make the difficult decision whether to ‘eat or heat’ each week. Thank you for your ongoing support, we couldn’t do what we do without you.”
