Merry Christmas

So as we come to a close for another year, there is a few more things to squeeze into the remaining blog!!!!

You may remember last week, Lisa (my sister) and I attended Winston Churchill School where Radio Woking is situated and were guests on The We Love Woking Radio Show presented by DJ Zahir Ahmed, you can listen to the two hour interview here : Radio Woking - Zahir Ahmed We had an absolute blast and my regular interviewer Jon Andrews came along too which was just awesome.

So the last Wednesday morning interview for the campaign with Jon Andrews can be listened to here if you missed it  - scroll to 18.16 in: Radio Woking - Jon Andrews

Darren and I attended Brookwood Christmas Tree light up and were approached by a couple who had come up from another nearby village, the lady of the couple was a little upset because she only had a few items of food to give, but as explained to her its a few more items more than we had yesterday and I was so pleased that they had made the effort to come up just for that purpose and how heart warming is that in the first place?



Massive thanks to all the donors including local companies:

Bentleys Garage - newbies this year and what a haul they provided. I had to take two trips to collect it all.

CSGI - Woking - Linda Silvester organised a great collection for me from this Company, way to go Linda they provided food parcels and a cash donation.

Walk the Walk Breast Cancer Charity - do contact them if you have any concerns about lumps or bumps or if you find yourself needing some help.

East West Indian Restaurant whom I have reliably been informed will now be open Boxing Day, so if you fancy a curry, get on their website and make a booking they are a great bunch.

Decormate tel: 07877 172066 for all your decorating needs

DIO Landmarc Securities  - again these guys were new to the campaign this year and I was very pleased to have them on board.

Pre-School @ St Saviours Church - these guys are great they come on board every year and always supply a beautiful parcel or two its almost a shame to take it apart...

Fulks Butchers, so if you have still not ordered your turkey I am sure they will happily take your order, but dont leave it too much longer.

Surrey Woodflooring who have just today very generously donated a cash sum.  Many thanks guys this will help the foodbank well into the New Year now and massive thanks for getting in touch again.

Brookwood Memorial Halls -massive thanks to these guys for donating the halls for the additional fundraiser for free, it defo pays to be a villager that's for sure.

Beard Construction  we literally had a last minute delivery from these guys yesterday, in fact I had no idea they were even collecting for us, so it was a fantastic surprise when I got a message from the Post Office to say that a large delivery had been left - massive thanks to you guys and welcome aboard this year and becoming another business to join our campaign.

Some of these Companies are located in the village, but its so nice to have companies involved that are outside of the village, its great that they have taken the time to get involved.  Please do visit their websites if they can be of any use to you.

A massive thank you to all my drop off points:

Bentleys Garage
Brookwood Club &
Brookwood Post Office/Bakers Dozen

And finally to all the donors....yes that's you :)

We have made two full van load distributions to Woking Foodbank already and we have lots of cash in the bank to help see them through to the early months of the New Year and that's all because of you guys.  What an absolute fabulous achievement its been this year.

I have reconnected with some old faces and made some new friends along the way.  May it continue for many years to come.


It never ceases to amaze me just how much everyone gets involved in this campaign and more so people that can't really afford to give, but still want to help out whatever way they can.

Here are a few more piccies of the load I have delivered this morning, lots of parcels from DIO Landmarc Securities, fellow villagers and a last minute delivery from Beard Construction who is located in Cemetery Pales, Brookwood.

In total we have delivered in excess of 120 food parcels which is way up on last year and will obviously benefit lots of needy families this Christmas and well into the New Year.

Jigsaw - Woking which is located on the ground floor have taken at least 20 parcels off of us too which is amazing, so lots of preschoolers will be getting books, toys and more importantly clothes and blankets.

All of the food that is delivered to the Foodbank is weighed
and this is whats happening here

We have plenty of cash in the bank which will be used in the New Year once Christmas supplies start to dwindle and taking into account the amount of people currently using the foodbank that won't take long to spend, but at least we have it to fall back on.

 Apologies if I have missed anyone off of the list.




Lastly, Darren and I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a healthy 2020.

Best wishes and once again thank you so much for getting involved in this joint venture this year.

Darren & Trudi xxxxxxxx

That's it for another year.....

Wow what a year its been for the campaign this year.  It seems to grow from strength to strength each year which is truly amazing and I have met some fabulous people along the way.

Do you remember Dawn from last week's campaign, she has been back in touch and has provided yet another bag full of goodies which will be passed to Jigsaw which occupies some space in the Foodbank. This is vital for all those young pre-school kiddies which wont have books and toys etc.  It also helps parents that are struggling with the basics that perhaps they cannot afford to buy and a few luxuries for the kiddies development.

Many thanks Dawn, you truly are an inspiration as it could have been so easy to have put the clothes into a clothes bank, but this way its helping local people in the Woking area.

Please do contact Jigsaw direct if you have anything that you would like to pass on to someone else.

At the time of writing this article we had in excess of 90+ food parcels so it was agreed with Alison from the Foodbank that we would make an interim distribution.  This distribution has now been done and you can rest assured that your parcel is now well and truly on its way to its new owner.  Take a minute to think about that!

You have helped someone have the basics this week and possibly a few luxuries over Christmas - thank you so much for all your help, this campaign would not be what it is without the input from all of you.

Its been a busy week out and about collecting parcels and donations, but there is always time to squeeze in another interview at my fav place - yep you know it, Radio Woking.  Radio DJ, Zahir who runs Wednesday evenings 6-8pm - The We Love Woking Show, contacted me and asked would I like to pop along to the studio for a couple of hours and talk about the foodbank and the campaign.  Well of course the answer was yes, so my sister, Lisa and I went off on Wednesday evening to Winston Churchill School and had a great time.  We were also joined by fellow DJ presenter Jon Andrews.  Piccies and interview recording to follow.

I also popped along to see Jan Treacher-Evans at Walk the Walk Breast Cancer Charity located at Genesis Business Park in Woking and look what they provided. Its a massive box full of goodies and also some much needed cash too.

Many thanks to Jan and her team for getting involved again this year.

Please do look at their website if you are worried about any lumps or bumps its important to get checked out especially if you feel unwell, as I found out this year!

So as the campaign draws to an end this year its for me and my team to thank you all as I said above we couldnt do it without you.  What a great team we all make and you should be so proud of our joint achievement.

Please do keep the parcels coming in I will of course still collect them.

For me personally the campaign this year has been an emotional journey. I don't know whether its because I have been so poorly myself this year or if its the generosity of people, some of whom really cant afford to spend the extra pennies, but have done so anyway.

May be its a complete mixture of all of the above.

And just before this article is about to go live, we have more donations in the form of kiddies clothes which have been very kindly donated to us by a very nice lady called Charlie from Knaphill and a bit like Dawn above, she didn't want them to go into a clothes bank she wanted them to go to a good home and to someone that can make good use of them.  Many thanks Charlie, your clothes and accessories will be working their way to Jigsaw in next 24 hours or so and will be helping out a local family.  I would say that that was perfect timing.

I am privileged to know so many generous people who are willing to help out and provide either a food parcel, cash donation or even just time. 

Next week will be the closing week for the blog and radio interviews for this year......hooooray I hear some of you say, I will let you know how we did, but in the meantime you can hear me live on Radio Woking next Wednesday morning just after 8am with Jon Andrews.

Thank you everyone that has donated so far

Trudi and Darren xx

We made the local rag!!!!

So here it is, the article in the Woking News and Mail: click on this link for the Online article following our fundraiser for Woking Foodbank in Brookwood Memorial Hall, Sunday just gone or alternatively pop into a local newsagent and pick up a copy as a souvenir 

There are lots more piccies online, so if you would like to purchase any please click on this link : Fun Day Photographs

Firstly, massive thanks to Anthony Gurr of Woking News and Mail and my very good friend Gary Avery for covering the event with their amazing photos and secondly to Brookwood Memorial Hall Committee, who very kindly donated the hall to me for free to enable the event to happen which completely took me by surprise.  That is such a generous and kind thing to do, but yet again it shows me just how much the community helps out when its needed.  I love it when things like this happen it certainly gives you that feeling that there are truly some lovely people out there who are willing to help out in a time of crisis.  You can't buy that sort of generosity! I have to say with a few simple decorations the hall looked pretty amazing and it most certainly put you in the mood for Christmas!

Live Radio Interview from the Fundraiser - please click on the link to listen: Live interview from Fundraiser

Listen to some of kiddies wish lists here :  Kiddies wish lists

and finally my live radio interview Wednesday morning : Radio Woking - live interview

It was interesting listening to some of the kiddies at our fundraising event and how much they wanted for Christmas and I am most interested to see whether the little one who wanted a car, yes a car whether he actually gets it, I guess only Santa will know that answer!!

Its been a crazy old campaign this year, with lots of new people coming on board and also some amazing companies returning that are located in the village.

East West Indian Restaurant staff

This week I went to visit the guys in my favourite Indian Restaurant, East West - finest Indian cuisine They are a great bunch of guys and the food is amazing. East West very kindly donated some vouchers to dine in their restaurant, which I was so tempted to keep for myself!!!  Anyway as in previous years I put them up for sale for the cash value equivalent and they were gone in seconds that tells you just how good the food is.  

Its nice to have a takeaway, but much better to dine in - you get top class treatment.

Also returning is our village decorator Lewis from Decor Mate who provided a very nice food parcel.  No job is too much trouble for Lewis and his team, so if they can help you with any of your decorating needs interior or exterior do give him a shout.

To date we have collected in excess of 70+ food parcels so that's a lot of food and that has all now been delivered to Woking Foodbank to enable them to organise parcels which The Salvation Army will deliver to the elderly and vulnerable and that is a lot of families that will get the essentials and some little luxuries that they couldn't possibly afford otherwise.

I had a call from a nice lady called Dawn this weekend to see whether the foodbank could make use of any kiddies clothes, and the answer to that is absolutely YES!  The foodbank does not only supply food it provides a variety of other things too, so please do check on their website to see what else they help out with, massive thanks Dawn, your used clothes will help someone else.

And finally, for this week, don't forget its the Brookwood Club annual christmas tree lightup this coming weekend Saturday 7th December, commencing around 6pm.  Please do come along its an open event and all our welcome.  As explained in last week's blog the sleigh will be in situ so if you have not yet donated a food parcel and would like to you can leave your parcel that night.  Currently what the village campaign is short of is Marmite, oil/vegetable oil, mayonnaise, sponge puddings.  That of course is what we are short off, I am sure there are lots more.  Below is the wish list provided by Woking Foodbank so please feel free to provide anything that is on the list.

Please do leave a comment if you have enjoyed my blog, or indeed if you would like to get involved then send me an email: trudifletcher@rocketmail.com

Although my campaign finishes on the 7th December, please do not think that I will not continue to take supplies, so dont worry if you are a little late, I get that its a busy time of the year.

Massive thanks to everyone that has donated so far, whether it be time to help out, cash or food parcel donations, Darren and I could not do it on our own and for that we are very grateful.