Customers at the Tesco supermarkets in the Bristol Region got into the festive spirit on the first weekend of December by donating a fantastic 14,600 meals of food to people in need this Christmas. as part of “Help Feed People In Need”, the largest ever food collection in the UK. The retailer joined forces with Foodbanks charity, the Trussell Trust and food redistribution charity FareShare to collect 1,000 tonnes of food across the whole country, the equivalent of more than two million meals!
Local shoppers donated 1725kg of food at the Bradley Stoke Tesco. Food raised by all the Bristol Tesco supermarkets will now be distributed to those in need by the North Bristol Foodbank, East Bristol Foodbank, Bristol NW Foodbank and Yate and Chipping Sodbury Foodbank. Shoppers donated a wide range of food items, with the most popular items proving to be cans of soup and tinned tomatoes. Many customers even used the opportunity to bring some festive cheer to the appeal by buying Christmas items such as mince pies and Christmas puddings.
Bristol Foodbanks were absolutely blown away by the generosity of shoppers with some people even donating whole trolley loads of food! There is a huge demand at the foodbanks so the donations could not have come at a better time. The four foodbanks would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who donated, Christmas is looking a little brighter for families in crisis as a result.
Stuart Sneddon, Tesco Golden Hill store manager said: “We’re delighted the people of Bristol have come out to support this vital cause. We’ve been overwhelmed by customers generosity and hopefully the food collected this weekend will go some way to help people less fortunate this Christmas. Thank you so much for all the support.”
Tesco has topped up donations by 30% and will also be providing extra funding for each of the charities to help them carry out more work in communities up and down the UK.
The Southern Brooks Family Support Team are currently working with families who find the financial strain of Christmas too much to bear. They are looking for donations of tinned or long life foods and small gifts to make hampers for Christmas.
The Willow Brook Centre’s annual Christmas Lights switch on takes place on Thursday this week.
Local resident Will Brown has written to us to ask for our help in promoting his annual charity fundraising, which this year is set to benefit the Children’s Hospice Southwest at Wraxhall.
Riders will meet at Parry’s Lane on the Bristol Downs for 12.30pm, depart from Parry’s Lane at 1pm in convoy through Bristol Their route will take them via Blackboy Hill – Whiteladies Rd – Park St – around the Centre – Anchor Rd – Hotwells to the Long Ashton Park and Ride. They will then re-group and travel as a group to the Children’s Hospice at Wraxhall where they will give their presents to the children at the hospice.
Local schools are inviting members of the community to go along along and enjoy some festive spirit at their annual Christmas social events.
What is ‘Carol’? - Based on Bob Hartman’s recent book this modern retelling of Dickens’s classic “A Christmas Carol” promises to be a fun-filled magical evening of theatre and seasonal songs for all. Who is it for? ‘Carol’ is aimed at the local community (age 8+) and is a great way to get people together and celebrate Christmas. The event also provides an opportunity to raise essential support for Tearfund.
Would you like to give something back to someone in your own Community, with an immediate benefit?