Today was our annual Christmas Holiday Shack. It came at the end of our busiest week ever at the foodbank.
Hailsham Pavilion very generously gave us free hire of the cinema for all families who had visited the foodbank in December to watch Frozen 2. Hailsham Town Council kindly gave us jars of sweets from last weekends market and Polegate Boys Brigade made up bags of mixed sweets for us. We were able to give these out to each child that came along to watch the film.
15 of the families, referred to us through local schools and keyworkers, then came down to Christchurch in South Road to a buffet lunch where we had platters from Subway (funded by Tesco Bags of Help grant) along with crisps, cocktail sausages, fruit, biscuits and cake. After lunch Santa’s elves had left stockings, which were all handmade by a lady throughout the year and kindly given to us, full of gifts for the children and we had lovely gift sets of toiletries which had been donated for the adults. There were also some small soft toys (also from Hailsham Town Council) and other big bears and toys which had mostly been donated from shoppers in Sainsburys in Heathfield as well as a few other toys we had donated to us in the run up to Christmas. The children also all got a selection pack and each family a box of biscuits – all of which had been donated as part of our reverse advent calendar.
To see over 50 people all together enjoying themselves in a local church and seeing how grateful they were to have such a special treat was so lovely. None of this would have been possible without the volunteers who gave up their time today to help – we really appreciate it at such a busy time of year. We are just so thankful for the support of our community, from the hire of a cinema to a donation of some chocolates. All combined together makes a significant and meaningful difference to people in our town.
