Reverse Advent Calendar 2017 – #FoodbankAdvent
With our modern, fast-paced lives, it’s sometimes easy to forget that there are many families going hungry. With lots of families struggling to make ends meet & relying on free school meals, the school holidays in particular can be really tough! Finding the funds to feed hungry children isn’t always easy and many families find themselves relying on foodbanks just to survive. This is terrible at any time of year, but at Christmas it’s even worse.
With this in mind, this year’s UK Money Bloggers Christmas campaign will be a Reverse Advent Calendar in support of the Trussel Trust.
Who are the Trussel Trust?
The Trussell Trust runs a network of over 400 foodbanks, giving emergency food and support to people in crisis across the UK, where thirteen million people live below the poverty line. In the last year we gave 1,182,954 three day emergency food supplies to people in crisis. (https://www.trusselltrust.org/)
This is a fabulous cause, they work incredibly hard and help out thousands of people who would otherwise go hungry.
What is a Reverse Advent Calendar & how can you get involved?
The idea is that every day, for 25 days, you add one food item to a box. At the end of the 25 days, you then deliver your box to your local foodbank.
Unlike a traditional advent calendar where you’d do this throughout December, it’d be fab if we could do this for 25 days in November! That way, you can deliver your box to your local foodbank in the first week of December, giving them plenty of time to distribute the boxes before Christmas.
You can find your local Trussel Trust foodbank here. Also, it’s worth bearing in mind that some foodbanks only operate a couple of days a week, it’s definitely worth checking this in advance and planning when you’ll make your delivery.
What to include.
The best things to include are dried and tinned foods that won’t perish quickly. Tinned fruit, tinned vegetables, cereals, dry pasta, rice and tea bags are all great ideas. If you’re including Christmas items such as chocolates and mince pies, make sure they have a long date on them. Try to include a good balance of basic essentials first though.
Join in!
I’ll be taking part in this throughout November, I’ll be roping the children in to help too! If you’re going to join in, it’d be fab if you could share with the hashtag #FoodbankAdvent.
Pin it for later!
Oh I have seen a few people do this over the past few years and it really seems like such a great thing to do. It must be so satisfying to watch the box filling up! 🙂
Oh wow! I love this idea! It is also a great way to start teaching my almost 3 year old about giving back to the community and the importance of giving to those who need it most. Thank you for sharing. #fortheloveofBLOG
What a great idea. I joined in with something similar last year. Mostly it was stuff I had too much of and well it was nice to send it to somewhere where it was more needed. You have reminded me that I must take part again this year.
That’s such a good idea and something really nice to get involved in x
This is such a great idea. I think it will be good for families to get involved so that children learn about helping others who are less fortunate.
I’ve heard of this before and really would like to join in this year. I must admit I thought it would be better to do in November ready for the December rush, so I’m glad you mentioned it. Is there a blogger brief for this or anything? I’d love to publicise it on my blog too.
It’s a project set up by the UK Money Bloggers 🙂 You can find out more on their site – https://ukmoneybloggers.com/. It is a fantastic thing to do!
Thank you so much! I’m definitely going to take part.
Wow this is a brilliant idea for a fantastic cause, good luck with the reverse advent calendar. Thanks for linking up at #fortheloveofBLOG. Claire x