Did you know that the foodbank is there to help people in crisis and this year it will be its 5th year in operation. People in crisis will be provided with three days worth of emergency food, including breakfast, lunch and dinner.
So whats in a parcel you may ask, well a typical food parcel may consist of Breakfast cereals, pasta, rice, pasta sauce, tinned beans, tinned meats, tinned vegetables, tinned fruit, tea/coffee, sugar, biscuits and snacks. The Foodbank will usually adapt the food parcel to meet the individual needs, for example gluten free, halal or vegetarian.
So whats in a parcel you may ask, well a typical food parcel may consist of Breakfast cereals, pasta, rice, pasta sauce, tinned beans, tinned meats, tinned vegetables, tinned fruit, tea/coffee, sugar, biscuits and snacks. The Foodbank will usually adapt the food parcel to meet the individual needs, for example gluten free, halal or vegetarian.
Woking Foodbank are currently supporting around 30 individuals and families every week!!! That's a lot!!!!!
There is also lots of other things going on in the Foodbank, including various other companies including Jigsaw Project who provide, clothes, toys and baby equipment for families that have kiddies aged 0-5 years, The Kitchen - learning to cook on a budget is one of the things that happen in there amongst others, Steam Ahead which can provide clothes, shoes, handbags etc, CV's and confidence building for the ladies only to help them get back into employment. The Cosy is a community coffee shop all the money that is raised in here goes back into the foodbank.
There is also lots of other things going on in the Foodbank, including various other companies including Jigsaw Project who provide, clothes, toys and baby equipment for families that have kiddies aged 0-5 years, The Kitchen - learning to cook on a budget is one of the things that happen in there amongst others, Steam Ahead which can provide clothes, shoes, handbags etc, CV's and confidence building for the ladies only to help them get back into employment. The Cosy is a community coffee shop all the money that is raised in here goes back into the foodbank.
There are several branches under the Woking Foodbank the main being The Lighthouse in the High Street, Woking (for those of you that know Woking well, its where the old Courts Furniture building was), The Salvation Army Corps, in Sythwood, Goldsworth Park and The Mascot Hub in Dartmouth Avenue, Sheerwater. Please check out the website for the opening times of each branch.
You can be referred to the Foodbank via frontline sources, including your GP, Social Services Citizens Advice, Job Centre Plus and Woking Borough Council to name, but a few. You will then be provided with vouchers which you can take to the foodbank and exchange for food to cover you for the three days.
Its hard to accept that in such a affluent area as Woking which is so close to London that we need these facilities, but I have to say that I visited Woking Foodbank in the summer to find out a little bit more about the services that they provide and whilst I was there I talked to one of their previous service users, Michael. Michael's story really touched my heart. Michael aged a mere 62 years had been living in his car for the past 7 months before being put in touch with the foodbank having not eaten for 3-4 days. Michael had also been visiting the Peacocks Shopping Centre for washing facilities, which must have been extremely tough. Michael said that he was lucky enough to be referred to the foodbank and in his words they saved him as he was at the point of suicide. This must have been an extremely tough time for Michael, you cannot even begin to imagine what he must have been going through.
Michael has fortunately now sorted himself out with sheltered accommodation which obviously is a massive improvement from living in his car. Can you even imagine living in your car for any length of time let alone 7 odd months during those cold winter months and stifling summers that we have had?
Last year some of Brookwood villagers and various companies that got involved in my Christmas Foodbank campaign provided just under a ton of food, which provided up to an additional 90+ families with extra support over Christmas, plus the service users.
I even went out with my wheelbarrow to collect the heavy parcels, but this year I am lucky enough to have upgraded from the wheelbarrow to the very lovely sleigh that was converted by my very good friend Phil Bayliss and kindly donated by Roger, store manager at Homebase, Woking. We had two lovely and huge parcels very kindly donated by Brookwood Pre-School. I know that they currently have vacancies, so if you have a little one that needs placing in a pre-school why don't you give them a ring to see if they can help you out.
So my question to you is - would you like to get involved? if so, its really easy all you have to do is drop me an email trudifletcher@rocketmail.com collect a few items of food from the list below and I will arrange to collect your food parcel and deliver to it to the foodbank on your behalf. It's as simple as that.
So what do they need? here are some of the items listed below:
Tins of biscuits
Christmas cake
Biscuits for cheese
Crisps/pringles/savory snacks
Christmas sweets/chocolate treats for children
Selection boxes
Christmas chocolate boxes/roses/quality street
Long life sponge puddings
Healthy bars
John West long life pasta salad
Long life juice
Long life mini rice puddings
Long life custard
Canned fruit
Long Life milk
Canned Spaghetti
Canned peas
Canned meat or chicken casserole
Canned tomatoes
Canned soup
Powder potato
Instant coffee
Canned vegetables
Vegetable oil
Ketchup/Brown sauce
Mayonnaise
Marmite
Peanut Butter
Honey
Clothes washing detergent
Washing up liquid
Toilet paper
Personal toiletries - excluding sanitary towels, but as this is a Christmas campaign you may also like to provide :
Christmas cake, Christmas pudding, bread sauce, sponge pudding, mince pies, pickled onions, cranberry sauce etc. You know the sort of thing that you would perhaps purchase for yourself as a little treat at Christmas....
Or if all else fails they are in desperate need of bags for life!!!!
So as you can see the list is pretty extensive, but when I visited a few weeks back the stock was pretty low and in some cases they had absolutely nothing of one item. I was horrified to see just how little stock the foodbank actually had.
I have to say that my posters are now up in various places, including Brookwood Club, Brookwood train station (we might be lucky enough to get a few commuters passing through to London involved), Brookwood Pre-School, Brookwood Post Office/Bakers, so you can drop food parcels at any of those places from here on in, with the exception of the train station for obvious reasons. I am lucky enough to say that cash donations have already started to roll in and I have been contacted by various companies asking if they can get involved and of course the answer is an absolute YES I would love you to get involved. If we work together we can achieve GREAT THINGS.
My first company cash donation was from Fletcher Autos. I visited this local motorcycle business in Cherry Street in Woking this week, to ask if they would like to get involved and of course the answer was yes. Fletcher Autos have provided a cash injection which means that I can purchase some of the much needed food off of the list above. Fletcher Autos can help you with all your motorbike needs, ranging from servicing, repairs, MOTs and refurbishing. Owner, Kevin Fletcher has been in the motorcycle trade for in excess of 30 years, so if you have a motorbike that might need Kevin's attention, please do look him up on facebook or alternatively give him a call on : 01483-751828. Its a very friendly and local business.
It would not be possible to organise the Christmas Foodbank Collection without your help, so I am going to thank you all in advance for getting involved and of course donating. I know its an extremely busy time of the year when we are thinking about our own families, but I cant thank you enough for also thinking about another family somewhere in Woking who is perhaps not as fortunate as ourselves.
During the course of the last campaign I had a lot of people ask me where the donations would be going and the answer is as it was then to the local people in the community. This food will not be going abroad, it will remain here and I know that this was a concern to a few people.
There are currently in excess of 50 volunteers that help out, I bet you didn't know that?
So the campaign officially starts next Monday, so I am hoping that you are all going to get involved as much as you can, its really exciting lots going on, so if you would like to be part of my campaign then please do comment on my blog or alternatively, drop me an email trudifletcher@rocketmail.com
I will continue with the blogs throughout the campaign to let you know how its going and also to keep you updated with the shopping list as I know that this can change from time to time.....
There are currently in excess of 50 volunteers that help out, I bet you didn't know that?
So the campaign officially starts next Monday, so I am hoping that you are all going to get involved as much as you can, its really exciting lots going on, so if you would like to be part of my campaign then please do comment on my blog or alternatively, drop me an email trudifletcher@rocketmail.com
I will continue with the blogs throughout the campaign to let you know how its going and also to keep you updated with the shopping list as I know that this can change from time to time.....
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