We realise that Christmas is a dim and distant memory by now. Nevertheless, we were far from resting on our laurels (or should that be our holly and ivy?) during the Christmas period and are keen to share with you how we helped to spread Christmas cheer and support some of our more vulnerable customers with our Christmas gift and foodbank appeal.
Throughout December, colleagues from around NHG donated food, gifts and cash contributions, which totalled £420. This together with generous food donations from Cardinal Vaughan school and 390 hampers from Junior League of London was delivered to our hostels and foodbanks across London.
We also raised £435 through our Christmas raffle which was donated to our Hardship Fund to help some of our most vulnerable residents.
Finally, at our Woodberry Down development in Hackney, staff prepared 25 Christmas hampers to distribute to older and vulnerable residents on the estate. They also prepared hampers to donate to Friends of Woodberry Down, an organisation that provides activities for older residents, and Hackney Playbus that offers play and educational activities to under-fives and their parents. The latter recently received funding from the NHG Wellbeing Foundation to deliver their services on the estate.
The local Sainsburys kindly accepted donations throughout October and November, which were added to donations from staff, and we were overwhelmed by the amount of donations we received.
Rosalyn Springer, social and economic regeneration officer, said: “Packing that many hampers was a challenge, but a fun one. We included items such as soup, canned vegetables and fish, rice and pasta and of course the obligatory mince pies. We put in some mini colouring books for Hackney Playbus hampers to provide something for the children.
“All the hampers were wrapped up neatly with a bow, and we wrote out cards to each resident, including additional ones for our 13 residents over the age of 90. We delivered the hampers on a sunny morning in early December and residents seemed delighted to receive them. We were touched to receive a note from one of our residents last week thanking us for her hamper which showed us that the donations were well received.”
