2023

40 advent calendars were donated to Reverand Linda, at her request, for distribution to the children of vulnerable families.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2022

March

Easter was looming once again and our little Soroptimiss and mum were hard at work organising Easter goody bags for the children.

February

We wanted to provide the makings of healthy lunches for at least five days during the Feb half term. Due to the increase in prices of food and energy, families are struggling even more to feed and/or heat their homes. When the children are in school they receive a healthy meal however during the school holidays this is not always available to them. We wanted to help mums provide for their children which would not only benefit the children but the mums too as their mental health and stress levels would be improved by not having to worry too much about giving their children a healthy meal.

Members donated food items towards the lunch provisions and we had intended to use £250.00 of club funds to purchase the rest of the items ready for delivery on Friday 18th Feb when the schools broke up. However on Thursday 10th Feb Revd Linda became aware that some of the local schools actually broke up on Friday 11th Feb. This involved 18 out of the 25 families who were due to receive the lunch provisions. Due to the very short notice we decided to deliver the items that had already been donated and then transfer funds to Revd Lindas discretionary account to enable her to purchase food items to make up the food packs in time for the 18 families. The remaining food packs were issued the following Friday as originally planned.

2021

October

Vulnerable families can struggle to give their children a hot meal during the school holidays often resulting in a decline in the mums’ mental health and well-being.  We wanted to empower the mums by providing them with the tools to cook a healthy meal from scratch which could be reproduced at a little cost.

A simple healthy cottage pie recipe was found and the recipe trialled to enable step by step photos to be taken to produce a simple, easy to follow recipe. We used monies raised from Easyfundraising, a raffle & other donations to purchase the ingredients. Veg and mince were both bought from local suppliers who gave us a discount.The bags were bought from Tesco, Widnes who gave us a 50% discount We also bought foil trays, stock cubes, milk & Angel Delight mixes.

One mum commented, “My house smells so lovely with the fresh food cooking.”

July

We wanted to support Captain Tom’s 100 Challenge in celebration of his 101st birthday and we wanted to continue to support the local families who have been hit hardest during the pandemic. With the school holidays looming we wanted to do a bit more than food and monetary donations. We felt we should do something to support the mental health and well-being of all members of the families who have been through so much.

We made 100 drawstring bags of which 20 would be for teenage boys and dads 20 for teenage girls and mums 40 for primary school children and 20 for babies and were filled with gifts. We asked friends family and all members for donations of suitable items for the bags such as: costume jewellery, toiletries, small gifts, biscuits, childrens books etc. One member had recently passed away and had left a considerable number of books which were used for the teenage/adult bags.We had held a Body Shop pamper evening and received 20 hand gels and face scrubs as commission which were used as above. We had collected soft toys for a teddy tombola in 2020 so used these for the childrens and babies bags.We also bought items where we needed extra items.

2020

April

We learned that Rev. Linda was making up Easter Sunday Lunch packs for families in need and she asked if we would be able to donate some

Easter eggs for the children and Easter cakes for a dessert. We decided to make up goody bags with Easter eggs and other items so the children would benefit from a feel good factor of receiving an Easter egg and the parents would be empowered by being able to give their children Easter treats. 48 goody bags and 33 boxes of cakes were distributed to 30+ local families in need alongside the Easter Sunday Lunch packs organised by Revs Linda and Peter Riley-Dawkin. Parents and children were delighted with their goody bags and lunches leading to improved feelings of well-being.

March

We usually donate non-perishable food items to help a childrens centre support local families to feed their children during the Christmas and summer holidays. Due to the huge increase in families/individuals needing support during the pandemic and the childrens centre not being open for normal business we learned of a local vicar, Reverand Linda Riley Dawkin of St Michael with St Thomas Church, who was collecting donations of non-perishable food items and delivering food hampers to families/individuals in need. She was also accepting financial donations which enabled fresh food items to be purchased and distributed e.g. milk bread fruit/veg meat etc thus enabling families/individuals to have healthy nutritious and balanced meals. We decided to donate our food items to Revd. Linda. we also made financial donations of £200.00 to enable Revd. Linda to provide fresh fruit, veg, meat and bread.