Whilst I have been out and about this week, I have noticed that several houses have been putting up their Christmas trees. This can only mean one thing! Christmas is coming!!!!!
Now for me Christmas is a festivity full of family, friends, fun, presents and food glorious food, but for some families that find themselves in crisis its their worst nightmare.
Its that time of year when we go mad with food shopping, filling up our cupboards to the brim so the doors hardly close with luxury chocolates, biscuits, smelly cheeses and Christmas puddings! 
Could you imagine having a young family, waking up Christmas day to no food, not even a Christmas selection box for your little one? For some families this is the reality and this is where we can hopefully help. By you providing a small food parcel of non perishable food or indeed a cash donation, its one less family that will have to worry about that dreaded day and you never know it could be that one parcel that gets them back on their feet.
Having got some statistics from Woking Foodbank it's actually pretty shocking how many more people are using the foodbank. In some ways thank goodness its there, but in other ways it is a sad and troubling time. Between January and September 2018: 1370 Adults and 649 children received help and yet the same time this year 2019: 2031 Adults and 1252 children. This makes me feel very emotional, it has almost doubled which is pretty shocking- I am wondering whats going on in our society to make these figures double in just a year!
So what are Woking Foodbank looking for? Well anything that is non-perishable please: Tins of biscuits, Christmas themed cakes, selection boxes, long life sponge puddings, powered potato, canned casserole meat, canned fish, UHT milk, canned spaghetti, rice pudding, canned chick pea......I think you get the idea.
I get that some of you don't have time to do the extra shopping, so I am happy to take cash donations and do the shopping for you. My drop off points are Brookwood Club, Brookwood Post Office Bakers Dozen.
I forgot to say that last week, I started my weekly radio interviews with Jon Andrews at Radio Woking which will continue until the campaign closes on the 7th December.
Did you miss it, don't worry you can catch up with it here: Interview with Jon Andrews at Radio Woking or indeed this week's chat was with Lara, so you can find out what I have been up to this week : Interview with Lara McNamee at Radio Woking .
Do listen in Wednesday mornings just after 8am you can get more details about the fundraiser which is happening on the 24th November in Brookwood Memorial Hall and it only costs £5.00 yes £5.00 per child. My advert is being rolled out on a weekly basis by Radio Woking so tune in to get the details or email me trudifletcher@rocketmail.com for more info.
Please get in touch if you would like to get involved we would love to see you, we have this giant gingerbread house which needs colouring in and I can't do it on my own, well I probably could, but where's the fun in that! This is a great opportunity for the kids to have some mindful from their busy lives too.
Several companies have come on-board this week and a couple of newbies to the campaign. DIO Landmarc contacted me to see if they could help in anyway and of course the answer is yes.
Graham from Landmarc told me "that the company is a world leading provider of integrated support services in military training facilities management, range and training area design, operation and management, range safety,specialist environmental services, rural estate management. The company currently has 1300 people strong and is active across 120 military training sites in the UK. Its so lovely having the military attached to this campaign again, I don't know if readers can remember? but a couple of years ago we had The Welsh Guards involved before they were deployed to Afghanistan.
Attached to Landmarc is Sandes Christian Charity (The Soldier's Friend) which was founded in 1869.
Sandes serves the military community working with the solders in centres located on military bases across the UK. These neutral, non military spaces provide a home from home for soldiers and their families who can face incredible pressures and stressful working lives. These centres are designed to be sanctuaries where soldiers can find a welcoming space on camp, free from rank and the pressure of military duties".
Landmarc and Sandes Cafe will be providing a joint effort which is amazing, I will let you all know how this goes.
It's nice to have some people back from last year, Fulk Butchers in the village have provided a lovely parcel for me, its such a great community spirit - don't forget to call in and get your order placed for that Christmas dinner if you haven't done so yet.
Pre School at St Saviour's Church are kindly displaying my posters and the lovely ladies have said that they will do their bit to help with the foodbank campaign. This might be where I will have to get the sleigh out for a little trip. The parcels that the pre-school have provided in the past have been absolutely amazing, but my god so heavy and lets face it, its a great opportunity to get the sleigh out and get the villagers talking about what's going on in the community.
The absolutely amazing Linda Moss is back with her company CSGI based in Woking, again you can look back on Last year's blog for more details. Linda is an absolute treat to work with, she rallies around getting in parcels and cash donations for me and it just shows you that I don't do this campaign on my own, everyone does their bit.
Oooooo and do you remember Kris Kringle from last year, if not you can look back on my blog The Show Must Go On!!! well I am very pleased to say that he is back again this year and has kindly provided a very nice donation and some very kind words for good health.
So Mr Kringle thank you so much for your contribution its going to make a huge difference to some people.
And the above leads me onto my biggest question.......dun dun dun.......can I persuade anyone to be Santa for my fundraiser, guess you will have to keep tuned in and see what happens....
In the meantime, I will be about the village to see if I can get anyone else to come on-board with this amazing initiative - whats the worst that can happen, they say No!
I still have spaces available for the fundraiser, so please do get in touch if you would like to come along and indeed if you didn't feel like doing any hand/feet painting pop in for a cuppa tea/coffee (£1.50 per cup), put ya feet up, listen to some Christmas music and simply enjoy the moment of having some time to yourself.
All are welcome and we would be very pleased to see you.
Several companies have come on-board this week and a couple of newbies to the campaign. DIO Landmarc contacted me to see if they could help in anyway and of course the answer is yes.
Graham from Landmarc told me "that the company is a world leading provider of integrated support services in military training facilities management, range and training area design, operation and management, range safety,specialist environmental services, rural estate management. The company currently has 1300 people strong and is active across 120 military training sites in the UK. Its so lovely having the military attached to this campaign again, I don't know if readers can remember? but a couple of years ago we had The Welsh Guards involved before they were deployed to Afghanistan.
Sandes serves the military community working with the solders in centres located on military bases across the UK. These neutral, non military spaces provide a home from home for soldiers and their families who can face incredible pressures and stressful working lives. These centres are designed to be sanctuaries where soldiers can find a welcoming space on camp, free from rank and the pressure of military duties".
Landmarc and Sandes Cafe will be providing a joint effort which is amazing, I will let you all know how this goes.
It's nice to have some people back from last year, Fulk Butchers in the village have provided a lovely parcel for me, its such a great community spirit - don't forget to call in and get your order placed for that Christmas dinner if you haven't done so yet.
Pre School at St Saviour's Church are kindly displaying my posters and the lovely ladies have said that they will do their bit to help with the foodbank campaign. This might be where I will have to get the sleigh out for a little trip. The parcels that the pre-school have provided in the past have been absolutely amazing, but my god so heavy and lets face it, its a great opportunity to get the sleigh out and get the villagers talking about what's going on in the community.
The absolutely amazing Linda Moss is back with her company CSGI based in Woking, again you can look back on Last year's blog for more details. Linda is an absolute treat to work with, she rallies around getting in parcels and cash donations for me and it just shows you that I don't do this campaign on my own, everyone does their bit.
Oooooo and do you remember Kris Kringle from last year, if not you can look back on my blog The Show Must Go On!!! well I am very pleased to say that he is back again this year and has kindly provided a very nice donation and some very kind words for good health. So Mr Kringle thank you so much for your contribution its going to make a huge difference to some people.
And the above leads me onto my biggest question.......dun dun dun.......can I persuade anyone to be Santa for my fundraiser, guess you will have to keep tuned in and see what happens....
In the meantime, I will be about the village to see if I can get anyone else to come on-board with this amazing initiative - whats the worst that can happen, they say No!
I still have spaces available for the fundraiser, so please do get in touch if you would like to come along and indeed if you didn't feel like doing any hand/feet painting pop in for a cuppa tea/coffee (£1.50 per cup), put ya feet up, listen to some Christmas music and simply enjoy the moment of having some time to yourself. All are welcome and we would be very pleased to see you.
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