Reverse advent campaign
By now, those of you who celebrate Christmas are probably in full swing making plans, buying presents, thinking of recipes, etc. But what if you had no money to spare for Christmas? What if you were jobless or homeless? Can you imagine how awful it must feel to be penniless at Christmas? Maybe you have been there.
With this in mind, how about making a contribution to the food bank this year? My team at the office are planning a reverse advent system. It works like this. You usually open your advent calendar and remove a chocolate, a toy – Aldi even does one where you get a mini bottle of wine each day! With the reverse advent you take a nice big box and every day you make a contribution instead.
Along with the usual staples such as baked beans, tinned fruit and vegetables, pasta and toiletries, we will be adding a few luxuries for Christmas. Fancy biscuits, good quality coffee, a Christmas pudding and maybe some creamy custard will all be making their way into our box.
Join us!
How about joining us for the Christmas reverse advent? We will start mid-November rather than on the 1st December, so that we can deliver the goodies to our local food bank in plenty of time for the festive season.
If you want to find your nearest food bank and have a look at the list of suitable items to include you can visit the Trussell Trust. All should be non-perishable with a long end date. A typical food parcel from the food bank will include:
Cereal * Soup * Pasta * Rice* Pasta sauce * Beans * Tinned meat * Tinned vegetables* Tea/coffee * Tinned fruit
You can also check with your local food bank on the website to see what they are short of currently. It is a good idea to include some items of toiletries such as soap, shampoo, toothbrushes, toothpaste, toilet roll or deodorant. The food banks don’t get many feminine hygiene products like tampons donated, so maybe some of those too.
Some more information from the Trussell Trust:
Thirteen million people live below the poverty line in the UK, with individuals going hungry every day for a range of reasons, from benefit delays to receiving an unexpected bill on a low income.
The Trussell Trust’s 400-strong network of food banks provides a minimum of three days’ emergency food and support to people experiencing crisis in the UK. In 2016/17, we gave 1,182,954 three day emergency food supplies to people in crisis.
Many members of the UK Money Bloggers group will be promoting this campaign. You can read the original post on this here.
I love this reverse advent idea! Do you think you will be joining in?
Margaret Powling says
While I mightn’t be able to put something into a box every day for the whole of advent, what we have done for the past couple of years is make a contribution to the in-store food-bank container every single week. So that’s in the very least 52 items in the year. We make sure that what we put in isn’t just ‘bargain basement’ stuff, either, so we’re not adding insult to injury so to speak. This week we put in our first Christmas pudding. Toiletries are also recommended, but hold back on the baked beans, they tend to get loads of those.
Margaret P
Michelle Saul says
Bargain basement stuff so to speak, is all most can afford on a daily basis, so your comment is a tad insulting
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
I don’t want to speak for Margaret, but I think she meant because she can afford a little more, she gives a better quality product than those people who have to rely on food banks might otherwise be able to obtain. I’m sure it wasn’t meant to be insulting and I didn’t take it that way. I say this as a bargain basement sort of gal myself. Having said that, I’m sure the food banks would welcome value peaches or tomatoes as much as anything. They are often as good, I find!
Margaret Powling says
I assure you I didn’t mean to be insulting. What I mean is I put things into the container for the food back each and every week but we choose things we would use ourselves as I don’t want to make the people on the receiving end feel we’re only giving them the cheapest – have I made it clear now, Michelle? But anything that people can afford to put into the food bank containers is better than nothing. I certainly didn’t wish to insult those giving or those on the receiving end; I am saying that if we (personally) can afford to shop in Waitrose then we can afford to give away something each and every week. I buy all kinds of foods, basic buys as well as more expensive brands; much depends on what we are buying. I buy the best food I can but save by buying cheaper washing machine liquid, cheaper kitchen rolls and so forth, things we don’t actually consume. We buy all tinned fruit in Lidl, it’s the best we have ever tasted. We shop around, just as any sensible people do, to get the best bargains. I do hope I’ve made things clearer.
Margaret P
Michelle Saul says
You just hit the nail,on the head the value food tastes just as good, I agree that Margaret didn’t mean to offend, but she did offend me, I eat value food and I donate value food to the food bank, just because something costs more it does not mean it is any better and it’s patronising to suggest that it is. I grew up around people who did not have a lot of money and found comments like these very hurtful.
Elaine says
This is a great idea, I will be joining in! It turns out there isn’t a local food bank where I live, but the Co-op and some other shops have collection points, so that will do the job. Thank you!
Kirrie says
I do voluntary work for Trussel Trust. We have the bean and soup mountain!. Yes sure are grateful for every donation!. But what is really needed is tins of meat and fish. Especially cold meat and tuna, sardines as not everyone has a means of heating food. Tins sweet corn, potato salad. Boxes of smash as only needs hot water. Tins fruit!. Bars of soap, tampax and pads. Toothpaste.
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
Great advice, thanks Kirrie. Will make sure we include some of those items
Margaret Powling says
Thank you, Kirrie, that is excellent advice. I have asked in the supermarket what I should put in and I’ve been told long life milk is often overlooked. But now I shall put in the items that, as you say, don’t need heating.
Margaret P
Julia says
Great idea. 🙂
I did a “12 days of Yule” one last year as I heard about it too late for delivery before Christmas, and delivered it in January.