Last week has been a very blessed week with some great donations coming in of both food and finance.

On Monday we had a wonderful surprise when two of our faithful supporters, Mike & Carolyn, came in with a generous financial donation and some food donations, received instead of gifts to celebrate their Ruby Wedding Anniversary. What an amazingly selfless gesture and one that is truly appreciated.

On Monday evening we hosted a group of young people from the Granby Mosque who brought in their food donations collected throughout Ramadan. They helped us to sort the food and get it on the shelves which everyone enjoyed doing - this was the second year they have collected for us.

Tuesday saw another of our regular supporters - Tish, bring in funds raised at a recent jewellery party that she had arranged to support The Food Bank. This fun event raised over £300!


On Friday, Mercedes held a clothing collection for us at their offices in Tongwell and Caldecott which was a great success. Collecting clothing and household textiles is another of the many ways in which we are looking to generate funds from items which people no longer require.

You may also remember that Alanna and a team from Mercedes were hoping to do a sponsored parachute jump to raise funds to support our work, however it had been postponed a number of times due to weather conditions. On Friday, Alanna advised me that the company they were planning to jump with had gone out of business! Alanna then went on to say that many of her sponsors were still happy to give their sponsorship money despite the jump not having taken place and Mercedes-Benz UK Ltd were still willing to give £500 to top up the kitty - so I left on Friday with £610 and tears in my eyes - aren't people great!

When you see the rate that the need is rising - 4754 food parcels already this year - 78% up on last year - you will begin to understand how important donations of both food and fund are to ensure we can continue to serve our community.

Harvest festival is an important time for The Food Bank as many schools and Churches will be celebrating this time by collecting tinned, dried and longlife food to support us. This year it seems to be starting early and our diary is already full of school assemblies and talks at Harvest Services which is great news - so we are hoping for a bumper harvest!

Well that's a summary of last week - I look forward to Clive coming back from holiday as we missed him in the warehouse this week - thanks go to Paul and Sean for standing in and helping with the driving on our serving days.

Enjoy your weekend!