During December 2016, East Lothian Foodbank provided 175 3-day emergency food parcels to those in crisis across East Lothian, feeding 473 people, 204 of whom were children.
Christmas is a particularly hard time of year for those who are struggling financially, and struggling to feed themselves and their families and we know that the number of referrals we receive generally go up during the winter months, with a significant increase in the two weeks just before Christmas.
In addition to the standard food parcels we give out, at this time of year we’ve always tried to supplement with some seasonal extras e.g. mince pies, Christmas puddings, chocolates and biscuits. This year we would like to take this one step further and provide all those who are referred to us in the run up to Christmas with a “jingle bag”.
We hope our Jingle Bags containing everything needed for Christmas dinner with all the trimmings, and delivered to their door will bring some Christmas cheer to families experiencing food poverty at Christmas.
Items to be included:
- chicken/turkey (tinned)
- potatoes (tinned or packet mash)
- carrots (tinned)
- sweetcorn (tinned)
- gravy (packet)
- bread sauce (packet)
- stuffing (packet/box)
- Christmas pudding
- custard
- mince pies
- biscuits
- chocolates/selection pack
- Christmas snacks
- Christmas crackers
As jingle bags will be given out from December 1st all items will be non-perishable which will allow us to give them out throughout December without the fear of the contents “going off”.
We are working with local guiding groups and schools to produce festive “jingle bag” labels for each bag too.
If you would like to help us fill our jingle bags please pick items from the list above or you can download a copy of the shopping list here . Donations can be handed into the foodbank, or give us a call on 07516 510 617 if you have difficulty getting to us. As we will start giving our jingle bags out on 1st December we would like as many jingle bag donations as possible in by the end of November.
Thank you for your support,
The Foodbank Team