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Harvest Festival Appeal 2017

16th August 2017

This Harvest we’re asking you to help feed local people in crisis by collecting tinned and dried food for Braintree Area foodbank.  We are asking everyone to rally round to give items such as breakfast cereals, pasta sauces, tinned veg, tomatoes, meat, rice and sponge pudding, sugar, UHT milk, fruit juice and pasta.

 

One in five people live in poverty in the UK; many families hit a crisis and cannot afford food.  Today, people are going hungry in their own homes.  Rising food and fuel prices, static incomes, high unemployment and changes to benefits are causing many families to struggle to put food on the table but the good news is that you can be part of the solution.

 

The we help local individuals and families in crisis through the provision of emergency food supplies donated by churches, schools, businesses and the general public and distributed through our centres in Halstead, Witham and Braintree. The circumstances surrounding a crisis are unique to every individual, so the foodbank partners with voluntary organisations and  frontline care professionals, such as health visitors, social workers and other community-based support workers, who are able to identify and refer people facing hunger to the foodbank.  As well as receiving nutritionally-balanced three day food parcels, people are welcomed with a cup of tea, listened to and signposted to agencies that are able to help resolve the underlying cause of the problem.  Last year our foodbank distributed over 29 tonnes of food to almost three thousand people, of which just over one thousand were children.

 

The demands on the foodbank are as strong as ever and this is where we can help.  Please join with us by giving food so that local people in need don’t go hungry. Thank you.

NB: Please make sure all food is unopened, non-perishable, with at least six months shelf life, and undamaged.  Thank you!

We also need monetary donations to be able to continue this work.  Whilst all food is donated, overheads mean it costs £14 to supply food to one person.  We fed just over one thousand children in our last financial year. If we do not receive enough monetary donations our ability to supply this service and feed these children will be in danger.  This is why we are launching our Harvest Appeal on our Charity Choice web page.  Please search for Braintree Area Foodbank on the Charity Choice website.

 

Whatever you can give will really make a difference to someone’s life.

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