With huge potential job losses and increase in people using food banks, there could be more children living in poverty than ever and this Christmas we face a daunting task. Our mission is to ‘bring hope to children through the generosity of strangers’, reminding them all that there are people who care about them, and we do this by collecting and redistributing gifts from our store room in Sneinton,
Last year we put smiles on 810 young faces and this year we expect demand to be higher, so we’re planning to fill 1,500 Bags of Blessings, that’s 6,000 toys and teenagers’ gifts, 1,500 books, 3,000 items of stationery and 1,500 pieces of confectionery. Our Store will need elastic walls!
We have always wrapped the gifts in our bags but this year, with the restrictions of Coronavirus, we don’t expect to be able to wrap everything. Wherever possible we will put whatever we can in some kind of seasonal wrapping, however, and we are on the lookout for decorated paper bags to save time and handling.
All young people receive a Christmas card, so could we ask you to buy an extra pack of cards (it doesn’t have to be fancy or expensive), write each card on our behalf and drop it into a collection box? It would mean so much to them.
We need more collection points and more people than ever to be able to accomplish all this, so we are appealing to all our supporters to spread the word, talk to friends, neighbours, colleagues. You could start your own collection point in your club, workplace, church or neighbourhood. We will deliver and collect the boxes. Find out more about how to help.
Christmas 2020 will be a challenge which we are determined to meet head-on!