Dear Friends and Supporters of the West Somerset Food Cupboard,
It’s that time of year again when we’re all getting ready for Christmas. Here at WSFC, we’re busier than ever collecting donations in the community and packing Christmas food bags, set to be distributed on 11th December to our agencies and support groups in time for people to stock their cupboards and plan for their big day!
Big hearted Miles Tea & Coffee provides a year’s supply of tea, coffee and hot chocolate to us
We’re delighted that Miles Tea & Coffee has joined forces with us to provide a year’s supply of tea and coffee for our emergency food bags, making a sustainable social impact in the local community of West Somerset where it has a production site in Minehead. We’re especially proud to be partnering with such a well-loved local business, a real example of local heritage supporting local people.
Refurbished laptop donated by Computers4Charity
We’re so grateful to Computers4Charity who donated a refurbished laptop to us at their Tech 4 Reuse event. The refurbished laptop will help us to continue our work in managing referrals and coordinating volunteers faster, getting help to families when it matters most.
We’re proud to be part of the @coopuk Local Community Fund. To support us please go to membership.coop.co.uk/causes/97711
Linda’s homemade breads delight pantry members
One of our amazing volunteers, Linda, cooked two delicious breads for our Pantry members — parsnip, parmesan & sage and butternut squash, cheddar & rosemary. These recipes matched the ingredients available in the Pantry that week, and members also received a recipe card so they can try them at home!
Tesco FareShare campaign delivers big results
We were thrilled to take part in the Tesco FareShare campaign on 27-29 November, both with food donations and with volunteering to pack bags. The weekend was a great success with our team of volunteers helping in store and over 400kg of food being donated by the community over 4 days. What a brilliant team effort: we can’t thank everyone enough, especially Tesco/Fareshare for hosting the event. We can ensure you nobody will be going hungry this Christmas thanks to you.
This Month’s Shortages
Any non-perishable food items are always gratefully received:
- Tinned Vegetables
- Tinned Fish
- Tins of meat-minced beef, casserole
- Hotdogs & Meatballs
- Fray Bentos Pies
- Corned Beef
- Tinned Potatoes – small & large
- Sachets of Instant Potato Mash
- Squash and Fruit Juice
- Individual drink cartons-200ml
- Individual Puddings-jellies, fruit, rice puddings
- Sugar
- Crackers/Breadsticks
- UHT Milk 1 litre
We cannot accept open or out of date items. Please do not leave these items in our collection boxes.
Generosity from our Local Community
A huge thank you to local growers and supermarkets that help keep our Pantry going week to week:
- Porlock Allotments and Orchard
- Plowright Organic
- Alcombe Co-op
- Lidl Minehead
- Richard Little Butchers
- Deane Barton Free Range Eggs
- and other generous donations from within the community
A big shout-out also goes to:
- The Dunster and Porlock Community Orchard …. for donating 100 bottles of apple juice – a really delicious and truly local addition to our Christmas food bags.
- Poundland Minehead … for all their food collections which has made a significant boost for our emergency food bags and Pantry members.
- Generous food donations from the local WI, who also recently invited us to talk about WSFC’s activities and work in the community.
- Beautiful Christmas food donations from the Lion’s Club and our Rotary organisation.
Fundraising on Black Friday!
On Black Friday we asked supporters to help us for FREE by registering with easyfundraising. Over 4,000 retailers donate when you shop through @easyfundraising at any time of year – at no extra cost to you! All it takes is to sign up, use the app when you shop, and you’ll be helping support our work every time you buy something online. Please sign up at: www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/west-somerset-food-cupboard. Why not add donation reminder to your device and you’ll never miss an opportunity to donate: www.easyfundraising.org.uk/donation-reminder/chrome/update/.
We have increased our supporters from 19 to 30 since that weekend and we have raised over £500 so far, so please try and join if you can, it really does make a difference.
