It was a busy December at the Andover foodbank with volunteers using donations from across the community to help reduce the financial pressure on local people and to make Christmas happy.
The foodbank distributed nearly 680 Christmas gift boxes full of toys and gifts to care workers at agencies and schools including Childrens Services, the Andover Crisis and Support Centre, Mencap and Icknield School to be given to local children in need. Gift boxes were donated by individuals, staff at local companies including Simply Health and Artspace Interiors. Boxes were also made up and donated by children at schools including Bishop Challoner, Wellington Academy, St John the Baptist (RC) and Farleigh School.
In addition to Christmas gifts the foodbank distributed more than 320 Christmas food hampers full of treats including ham, stuffing, gravy, Christmas pudding, mince pies and chocolate to help individuals and families to celebrate with a festive meal. Supermarket collections were held at Asda and Tesco where customers donated vast quantities of Christmas food and the permanent collection points at Waitrose and Sainsbury provided more necessary items. Several teams from Agricultural Mortgage Corporation (AMC) and other volunteers worked hard to sort and pack hampers.
The foodbank launched ’12 Days of Christmas’ which encouraged donors to give particular items on certain dates to build up a hamper. More than 50 of these were received and a number of donors chose to visit the foodbank on an open afternoon to deliver their hampers and see how and where the foodbank operates.
The foodbank would like to thank local companies, Churches and individuals for their very generous financial, food and gift box donations and a special thanks to all the amazing foodbank volunteers who ensured that so many people in and around Andover were helped at Christmas.