Foodbank’s full of gratitude for your generosity
Great response to festive campaign in tough year
Stirling’s main foodbank charity has thanked locals for the response to its festive campaign during a year which saw record levels of referrals for its support.
Start Up Stirling services have benefitted from the generosity of people and businesses throughout the Stirling Council area via their Christmas Wishes Appeal.
The appeal was all about granting wishes, where making the smallest wishes come true can make the biggest impact.
However, some of the charity’s supporters in the community went above and beyond to help to make a difference to the lives of people living in hardship throughout the community.
The support was timely as, by October 2022, the number of referrals the charity received had reached the same level as the entirety of 2021.
This meant that by the end of the year, Start Up Stirling had received the greatest number of referrals for their services in the history of the charity.
Despite the current financial situation, many organisations helped to put a smile on the face of the people that Start Up Stirling supported at Christmas.
MKM Building Supplies in Stirling staff and customers provided two bulk bags of food and toys, which because of their size, had to be craned onto a low loader for delivery.
Start Up Stirling shared a stall at the Bino’s Extravaganza at Forthbank with The Stirling Observer’s Give A Gift toy appeal. The foodbank gathered in food from its Reverse Advent Calendar list, for use in crisis food parcels.
Start Up’s communities and fundraising manager Julie Christie said: “Dunblane were incredibly generous this year, with Santa helping Start Up Stirling at the Dunblane Extravaganza,
“The 25th Stirling (Dunblane) Boys Brigade had a food collection day, where they collected 557 kgs of food.
“Due to the ice before Christmas, Santa had to postpone his dash, so 60 Santas from Dunblane Soccer Club went dashing to support Start Up Stirling in January instead.
“The staff and shoppers at Tesco Stirling superstore helped to donate an amazing one tonne of food as part of their nationwide food collection for our Crisis Food Service. Visitors to the Thistle Shopping Centre also helped to support our Home Starter pack service by donating gifts as part of the Centres perennially popular Giving Tree Campaign.”
Start Up community fundraiser Caol Findlay added: “The knitting needles of the ladies of the Stirling Christadelphian Church in Bannockburn were very busy, as they donated over 100 hat and scarves sets, as well as 500 miniature Christmas stockings filled with sweets to be given as gifts and hot water bottle covers.
“The talents of the Forth Valley College hospitality staff and students was also in evidence, as they produced 700, delicious three-course Christmas dinners for the people using our Crisis Food Service over the festive period.
“Wallace DS in Stirling waved their magic wand when they presented me with a cheque for £10,000, which will help to make a lot of wishes come true for our service users.”
Julie added: “Carol and I would like to thank all of the individuals, businesses, grant making trusts, churches and community groups who supported the Christmas Wishes Appeal, as well as all of the volunteers who came along to fundraise at events.”