Hope launches tin campaign
AN OBAN charity has launched a campaign to get people to donate unwanted tins of food.
Hope Kitchen, which also acts as a food bank, is urging Obanites to Take in a Tin, so it can use them to feed vulnerable people in the town.
Hope helped to feed 93 people with its food parcels in February, not including the 40 or so people fed on a daily basis at its premises.
Beth Campbell, who works for the charity, said Hope’s storage cupboard was starting to get a bit depleted, so volunteers thought of the campaign.
She said: ‘We thought, we won’t be able to fill these parcels and if we don’t, I don’t know what would happen to the people. It’s for people who are elderly or don’t have much money or are disabled. We keep them going.
‘Everyone has stuff in their cupboard that they are not going to use - bring it in here and we will use it. If it’s something that someone won’t use, then I make something with it in here.
‘People can bring us anything in a jar, a tin or in a dried packet.’
Hope makes sure that its parcels are equipped with ingredients that will allow people to create a meal. For example, pasta is always partnered with a sauce.
Manager Lorraine MacCormick said: ‘What has happened was that we got a lot of food donations in at Christmas and a lot of it went out at Christmas in the 50 food boxes we sent.
‘ We still had lots of tins leftover. However, in February we gave out 36 food parcels which fed 93 people – 47 children and 46 adults.
‘Most of our stock went out in February, where we fed almost double the amount of people that we did in January.
‘I thought up the “Take in a Tin” campaign to see if people could spare a tin of anything for us.
‘ With a local population of 10,000 that could be a lot of tins – we’re supporting people from Mull as well as locally.’
If anyone has a spare tin, packet or jar, it can be donated at the Hope Kitchen on Argyll Street, Oban.