Christmas Food Bank Appeal 2016

[spirit of 1990]

The Bluebirds Supporters Trust and club are putting on the Christmas food bank appeal again this year. The table is set up as in previous years just inside the reception area and will be available during normal reception opening hours.

Paul Casson will once again be matching the donations like-for-like, so this is a another great opportunity to help people in need of some support at what will already be a difficult time of the year.

All the normal food bank suggestions apply......Tinned food, long dated food, toiletries etc etc.

If you are struggling to get your food bank donation to the club, drop me a PM and I'll try and arrange with you a time for me to pick up the donation from your house.

[Richard Ingham]

https://barrow.foodbank.org.uk/

[spirit of 1990]

It'd be a shame for the appeal to suffer a bit this year through a lack of home games when supporters might use that opportunity to bring their donations to reception, so please remember, if you leave your contact details either through a PM or at the club the Trust or myself will try to arrange a pick-up from home addresses.

[mark webb]

If for any reason no one can get to the club they can drop em off at The Bridge in Dalton and i'll come through

[spirit of 1990]

If for any reason no one can get to the club they can drop em off at The Bridge in Dalton and i'll come through

Thanks Mark, very nice gesture.

[Barrowabc]

Fair play that this up and running as it shows the type of people involved in the club and I'm proud of our club and fan's

[spirit of 1990]

Just over a week or so to go if anyone has anything to add to the appeal.

Two offers to pick up your donations if you can't get them to the ground, one from myself (Barrow area) and one from Mark Webb (Dalton area)

[McMark]

Hope those who are not quite so lucky financially did benefit in such a way that Christmas time becomes a little easier to cope with. Well done to those that did put others before themselves and thank you Paul and Stephanie.
http://www.nwemail.co.uk/sport/barrow-a ... 0bd526c-ds

[spirit of 1990]

Great to see this being so successful once again. Nearly £300's worth of food matched by Paul & Steph (I think there was a cash donation off a supporter or two as well)
To make sure the food bank got as much as possible from this offer myself, IRVJ & his wife went to B&M bargains & arranged with the manager to go in before it opened one morning just before Christmas and grab all the offers they had on - while also sticking to what the food bank people asked for. This resulted in about four/five shopping trolly's full of the most important food items requested by them, it really did look a spectacular amount of foodstuff/baby food and toiletries

Thanks to all who contributed.

Mods, can we leave this up for another week and then remove the thread? Thank-you.

[32mile_cul-de-sac]

its thing i do every year and its a no brainer handing in your donation to the club rather than the food bank itself. PC doesn't have to do this and for the needy a big thank you from them i would expect. Well done PC and all who donated.

[Derek Bradley]

I'm sure the FoodBank will send you a formal letter of thanks in due course. it's their first day being open post new year so there's always a lot to do. I'll remind Ann (FoodBank project manager) when I'm in next week-I mainly work there as a volunteer in the warehouse sorting /moving tins and packets around.

[Wintergreen]

So I guess there is a big uptake of food and goods over the holidays; do you have any numbers Derek for people who used the bank? Do homeless people use it?

[Derek Bradley]

The way the system works is you have to get vouchers from various charities, salvation army, social services and so on, so you can get a parcel, so you can't just turn up and ask for a few tins of beans! The parcels are normally made up to last three days and the size depends on the size of your family. Generally tinned /packet foods (must be inside best-before date). At Christmas they also give out children's toys, which we have the joys of wrapping (one day last Christmas I wrapped 85 presents in a morning and labeled them (e.g. boy 0-3, girl 5-9)).

They are always looking for volunteers (one or two days a week) - apart from running the warehouse we run a cafe and have volunteers manning collections at local supermarkets. Further details on the FoodBank's website (https://barrow.foodbank.org.uk). The main base is in the basement of Abbey Road Baptist church where the warehouse is located along with a cafe and the parcel hand-out and food-drop off point, but there are also distribution centres in Ulverston and Millom . It was originally set up by St Mark's church and other local churches and various community groups - while many of those involved are from local churches, it's not in any way a religious organisation.

Peak periods for handing out parcels are generally school holidays, as children stop getting free school meals, so Christmas, Easter, Summer Holidays. It's a fun place to work as a volunteer. It's a much bigger operation than I was expecting when I first started. While there's a lot of demand for parcels due to the level of poverty in the area, people are very very generous with donations, such as local church collections (e.g.Harvest Festival collections), school collections .

[Wintergreen]

Thanks for that Derek - keep up the good work and I will make a point of going to the Bapstist Church and making a cash donation for the Foodbank. I find it dismaying that people are having to use such facilities in this day and age in a town that seems to all intents and purposes relatively prosperous. Conversely I am encouraged that some churches are openly engaged in being Christian-like in the community and actually practising what they preach.

[audigex]

Thanks for that Derek - keep up the good work and I will make a point of going to the Bapstist Church and making a cash donation for the Foodbank. I find it dismaying that people are having to use such facilities in this day and age in a town that seems to all intents and purposes relatively prosperous. Conversely I am encouraged that some churches are openly engaged in being Christian-like in the community and actually practising what they preach.

When you get there, the food bank is down the left hand side of the car park, there's a garden round the back and you access it from there