Getting the word out there!!!!

The reasons why we need the Foodbank from the view of a 5 year old!!!

Meet Eloise Brennan, Eloise is 5 years old and she along with my two other elves, Mollie-Ann Bayliss and Amber Kiy have very willingly been helping me with the campaign, they seem to love the sleigh.  Mollie-Ann was very heavily involved with the painting of the sleigh along with her dad and creator, Phil Bayliss of PA Carpentry.

I asked Eloise a couple of questions as to why she wanted to help with the foodbank and here's what she had to say:

"we need the sleigh to fill it up with food so that we can give it to people that don't have food, people that don't have food will feel sad and may get poorly, but after eating the food they will start to feel happy again"

When asking Eloise what was she going to be putting into her food parcel, she said "lots of chocolate, toilet rolls, tooth brushes, pasta, spaghetti and apple juice"

Now reading that I recon Eloise has got it spot........I am sure whoever gets her food parcel will be really pleased with it and isn't it so lovely that a 5 year old has already grasped the concept that you need the simple things in life to keep you going. I think Eloise would also have liked everyone to have unicorns to make them smile, but i'm afraid I cannot seem to get any on Ebay at the moment, it must be the Christmas rush!!!!

Question, which is the better way to spread the word for my Christmas Woking Foodbank campaign, local radio or local paper????? the answer to that question is of course both!!!!

This week I did the first radio interview for the campaign with the amazing Jon Andrews at Radio Woking.  You may recall from one of my previous blogs that Jon Andrews came on board with the campaign last year and he has been brave enough to help out again this year.  In case you didn't tune in on Wednesday morning between 7-9am, here is the link to listen to it all again, oh come on its worth a listen, its only a few minutes of your time and can you believe I was even cut short because the Woking Mayor was waiting on the other line to talk to Jon, I mean does the Lord Mayor not know who I am???? : Andrew's radio interview

If you want to know a little more about Radio Woking check out my earlier blog entitled: Woking - The Big Christmas Foodbank Campaign they are a great bunch of guys, spreading local news to local people on a local community radio platform.

And as if that was not enough I then had a message from Rob Searl at Woking News & Mail asking if he could get some info to run an article in this week's paper, well of course the answer was yes, so I gathered all the kids, put some food in the trolley cart donated by Homebase - Brookwood, gave the kids beautiful hats and ensured that they were all looking very festive.

Here is the article if you would like to read some more on our Mission to spread some festive cheer to those in need.  Thank you to the News and Mail for helping out I have had a couple of emails from people outside of the village asking me to go collect parcels as a result of the article in the paper, its not too much trouble at all, so if you have a parcel that you would like me to collect, please do drop me an email: trudifletcher@rocketmail.com or I am happy to take cash donations and I will go and do the shopping for you.

These are my helpers, Mollie-Ann (left)

and Amber Kiy (right) pushing the trolley

and Eloise Brennan in the cart. I think they make

lovely elves don't you?

(picture courtesy of Rob Searl)

One of the parcels I collected was from a lovely lady called Rosemary who lives a couple of villages away.  Rosemary had dropped me an email having seen the article in The News and Mail saying that she would love to get involved, but that she had recently had a knee operation and was therefore unable to get to either of my drop off points.  Now that's not an issue says I.  We have all heard the saying "If the mountain will not come to Muhammad, then Muhammad must go to the mountain".  So off I went to meet Rosemary and here's what she had to say:

Rosemary told me that having read the article in the News and Mail she wanted to help with a donation and not only did Rosemary provide a much needed food parcel, but she also provided a cash donation too.  Rosemary said that the campaign is such a good idea, she had seen drop off boxes in the local supermarkets on her shopping visits so she knew about the Foodbank, but she said that it is very sad that people have to use these services.

It's reassuring to know that despite being in a bit of a pickle herself, people like Rosemary are more than willing to help someone else less fortunate than themselves.  We need more kind hearted and thoughtful people like Rosemary.

Like many people that I have come into contact with whilst running this campaign Rosemary did not realise that you have to be assessed to use the Foodbank, once assessed you are then provided with the necessary food vouchers to enable you to use them in the foodbank.  You can be referred to the foodbank through over 75 front line sources, including your GP, Social Services or Citizens Advice Bureau.

Whilst on the subject of donations, we have had a very generous cash donation from a company called "Don't Just Sit There Sell Something".  These guys very generously came on board last year and I am very pleased to say that Company Owner, Liam Brennan has provided his support yet again, so many thanks for the support.

Don't Just Sit There, Sell Something are located in Guildford with a workforce of between 15-20 staff and has been established for over 20 years. The secret of their success lies in their ability to tailor their sales pitch at specific levels; identifying, understanding and addressing the need for a different approach means that they consistently achieve high levels of success, becoming a self-funding part of every client’s business - and they only charge you if they get you results. 

The telemarketing company is a springboard for young people looking to get into sales and marketing and its a young team that keeps the management on their toes.

I know that they currently have vacancies too, so if you think that this may be a new path for you or indeed if they can help with any marketing then why not give them a try, you never know where it may lead......

When asking Liam about the foodbank and whether he could tie an emotion to it his response was "despair", "we are a nation of such wealth, but yet we still have people that need the basics like food"

And again Liam is absolutely right and what with Woking being so close to London a mere train stop away, its pretty shocking really that so many people find themselves in this situation.  Without the basics such as food and security things may begin to spiral out of control.  Hopefully the foodbank can bring some relief at a time of desperation, because lets face it nobody would go to the foodbank unless they really had no other option.

Finally, I have noticed that I am getting some feedback on my blogs, if you are going to leave a comment, please don't be a stranger, include your profile, I would love to hear from you.

So you can see its been a busy week.......I hope you have enjoyed reading this weeks blog...

oooo don't forget my drop off points are :

Brookwood Post Office/Bakers Dozen 8-5.30pm and
Brookwood Club 4-11pm

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