Donated food and drink needed for annual Christmas hampers appeal
Volunteers have started collecting food and drink items to once again provide Christmas hampers for disadvantaged families and vulnerable individuals in the Melton Mowbray area.
The team from Helping The Isolated last year distributed more than 300 hampers to give some much-needed festive cheer to those who cannot afford a proper Christmas dinner.
Organisers say there is a rising proportion of people who live in poverty despite family members having full or part-time jobs who are benefiting from the hampers.
Sharon Butcher, who is helping co-ordinate the scheme, told the Melton Times: “I remember one particular family we helped last year who were what we call in ‘working poverty’.
"The mum didn’t want to ask for a hamper but she decided to come to us just before Christmas.
"When we gave her a Christmas hamper she broke down crying because she said she’d told the family they were going to have to have egg and chips for their Christmas dinner.”
Donated food and drink items – even if they are just a tin of something or a small packet – is being collected at The Venue at Phoenix House, on Nottingham Road, and at local schools in the Mowbray Education Trust, including Brownlow, Sherard, The Grove, Ab Kettleby and Somerby.
Harvest festival collections have been given to the appeal by Mowbray Education Trust and money has been donated from Melton Round Table and the town firefighters’ Trumpton Christmas tours to buy produce for the hampers.
Items can be donated up to Friday December 19 before the team start allocating the hampers on the following Monday.
People are referred to the scheme by local schools, social services and other agencies.
Sharon, who is also a Melton borough councillor, added: “Last year we gave out just over 300 hampers and that was up on the previous year.
"The numbers wanting hampers was quite low but with the colder weather they have suddenly spiralled.
"Some old aged pensioners have realised they will be short this Christmas and others are struggling with their bills at this time of year.
"A lot of people don’t realise that there is this thing called ‘working poverty’ where some are really struggling despite having jobs.”