Mission accomplished!
Nearly 1,900 Christmas food parcels are delivered to over-80s
THE Newbury Weekly News Over 80s’ parcels are now delivered and it has certainly been done very differently this year to any other, following all the government guidelines and ensuring everyone ‘stays safe’.
My thanks go to everyone who has helped make this possible, despite everything, which started with support from Greenham Trust and donations from many companies in West Berkshire, who were very keen we made everyone’s Christmas a special one and people were not forgotten by the local community.
The build-up to the big day began on Friday when pupils from Trinity, St Barts and Kennet schools gave up some of their time to help unpack from the distribution vans kindly donated by Camp Hopson and Swift and helped us to fill our three distri
bution centres with lots of goodies – and this year a Newbury Weekly News to read too.
The vans had been packed prior to that at Sainsbury’s by the staff members who organised the packing and logistics, making sure the correct number of parcels were sent to the correct distribution centres.
The NWN storeroom has never been as full and had nearly 1,000 food parcels piled up inside.
All Saints’ Church Hall in Upper Bucklebury was also filled with nearly 600 parcels and The Croft
Hall in Hungerford was also full, as it is the central point for the Hungerford and Kintbury parcels.
I would like to thank Sue Kitchener for being the organiser for the Newbury parcels, John Smart for Thatcham and the surrounding villages and Ted and Daphne for Hungerford, as without these people the logistics of the distribution would be an impossible task.
D-Day itself – Saturday – saw even more kind-hearted volunteers from Newbury Round Table, Lions Club, Rotary Clubs, CHAIN and the British Legion make the door-todoor deliveries to every over-80year-old on our list, which this year was nearly 1,900 recipients.
In addition, residents in 10 local nursing homes were not forgotten and received a tin of chocolates to share during the festive period and St Gabriel’s Convent in Cold Ash was taken a lovely basket of fruit.
I have already started to read many lovely letters of thanks that have started to flood into the Newbury Weekly News offices, which to me confirms how much these parcels are appreciated and valued by so many of our over 80s and how the parcels really help to brighten up their Christmas, which they so very much deserve after this extremely challenging year for all.