THE MORAY FOODBANK is once more set to embark on two Festive campaigns that they hope will both raise the profile of their work in the local community and also much needed funding to help them continue that work.
Christmas is sadly one of the busiest times of year for the Foodbank, with requests in just one week leading up to Christmas Day seeing what would normally be the total for an entire month.
Under the direction of board member Sarah Holmes the Foodbank is aiming to place solid business principles at the head of their fundraising efforts.
“We need to keep the foodbank going as it has proven itself to be a vital service for a great deal of people in Moray,” Sarah told insideMoray.
She added: “The pressures that cause the need to have a foodbank in the first place are the same ones that make it more difficult to fundraise – so many good causes exist in Moray and throughout the country, all find it difficult in this time of austerity measures being taken by local and central government.”
Last year in the lead up to Christmas Sarah led the way towards two campaigns that she hoped would be well supported by Moray communities – and she was delighted to report that they were. So the exercise is being repeated this year from today – the start of Advent.
She said: “First up we have the Reverse Advent Calendar – we are encouraging the people of Moray to pop a list of items into a box every day through December to help build up food reserves at the Foodbank.
“Contributions can be dropped off today (Friday) and tomorrow at Tesco stores in Elgin, Keith and Forres – while food donations or, indeed, monetary donations can be made at the Moray Foodbank office at Elgin High Street on Monday to Friday, 9am until 1pm.
“We are also once more running our ’12 Days of Christmas’ challenge – we appreciate not everyone may be able to manage a full month of items and have 12 much needed items listed – so we have posters (download here) that will allow people to pop Santa’s face up in the coffee room with a box and take it in turns to each tear off an item and buy it on their lunch break.”
Sarah is also encouraging people to visit the Moray Foodbank website. It is also now possible for people to donate funding directly to the Foodbank through the website, funds that allow the daily purchase of fresh fruit and vegetables for onward distribution.
People can also visit the Foodbank page on Facebook where posters can also be downloaded.