As you know, My Beliefs section was centred around food poverty, with the aim of my project being as follows:
•Find details of all my local food banks, social supermarkets etc. and share with as many people as possible. Both for donating food and what to do if you need food.
•Actively find out what products my local food bank needs each week/month, and make a donation accordingly, encouraging others to do the same.
•Finally, my "project" will culminate in a Reverse Advent Calendar where I create a food hamper during advent by adding one item each day (instead of having an advent calendar where I receive a treat).
Bonus part...I will ask my son's school to consider arranging a collection for one of our local food banks, at Harvest Festival and at Christmas.
Support in the Local Community
We have 3 local food banks/social supermarket. One of these is a new foodbank, which launched in November and "getting the word out" to the local community was very important.
The 2 foodbanks require a referral from a local support agency (such as CAB or local council) however the Social Supermarket is a more direct approach, where anyone can become a member for 3 months and pay £3 to do a weekly shop of the available produce. The social supermarket tends to have fresh fruit and vegetables, and other perishables, whereas the foodbanks stock shelf-stable produce.
Donations to the Supermarket can be made direct to Rotherham Minster.
Rawmarsh Foodbank has many local drop-off points in the local area, for donations.
I have been following these local foodbanks on their social networking sites, to see what products they need and making regular donations, often sharing their posts so that more people are aware of what's is needed.
Advent Calendar
Throughout December 2022, I did a reverse Advent calendar. Each day I added one Foodbank item to a box, ready to be donated at the end.
Some people choose to do reverse advent calendars during November, so that they can include Christmas donations too. I chose to do mine in place of a regular advent calendar, so the box was filled by Christmas Eve. My items were donated a couple of weeks after Christmas; the bundle included both food items and personal hygiene products (which are often needed too).
Bonus - as a member of the PTA at my son's school (hello My Community 😅), I suggested that the school asked for Foodbank donations for the Harvest Festival this year (previously, fresh produce had been brought into school and sold back to parents, to raise funds). The headteacher agreed and the school community really got behind it, so the newly-launched foodbank received a great donation 🙂
I'm really glad I chose this project for My Beliefs, and I know that I'll continue to support these local charities.
-Jenny-
No comments:
Post a Comment