Foodbank ‘blown away’ by response to Christmas drive

Church’s festive effort proves a big success

A foodbank in Ashford has issued a message of thanks to residents following an “incredible” response to its festive campaign.

The Bright City Church Foodbank has been running a ‘reverse advent calendar’ to raise food supplies for the increasing number of people reliant on its service.

Families, businesses and teams from across the district have come together to answer the campaign after it took off on Facebook.

Sellindge resident Jeremy Norman, who has coordinated the push, said the team was inspired by a similar effort in Yeovil.

He said: “We’ve had a large number of contacts who have come up trumps - throughout November and early December there was a steady stream of people leaving bags and boxes of products; it was incredible and has been overwhelming.

“I’m not just talking about one or two, we had three or four bags/boxes at a time.

“The Mersham team had to bring a minibus because there were so many boxes.”

The campaign came after the Bank Street-based foodbank reported an increase in demand of more than 400% over the last few months.

While in March about 30 to 40 food parcels were being delivered or collected, the number is now more than 180.

Mr Norman, a former head of PE at the Towers School, says

the need is “very sadly growing”.

He added: “We have a fantastic team of more than 20 volunteers – and on average the demand for food parcels has gone up by at least 10 to 20 a month.

“We’d like to say a massive, massive thank you for what the people of Ashford have done to help out those who are more in need than others.

“However, we do find it difficult maintaining the sort of

level of product that we need to be able to keep on supplying.

“Supermarkets do supply us with a trolley full of products but that has basically disappeared by the time it’s gone through the door.

“But Graham and Debbie at Chives Caterers in Aldington have been absolutely incredible.

“Since the beginning of April they have provided more than 3,000 individual meals to go into the food packs even though they’ve basically stopped business this year.

“They are now in a situation where their business is in limbo. They need a massive, massive shout-out.”

■ The Bright City Church Foodbank is always open for donations during the day.

‘We’ve had a large number of contacts who have come up trumps for us...’

Volunteers Jade Fray, and her son Micah, in the foreground with, from left to right, Joel Cornelius, Tanya Mantiziba and Simeon Wright in the background

Donations have been flooding in at the Bright City Church in Bank Street