2020

Council to provide 600 families with festive food parcels

Date Posted: 12:26 PM on Tue, 15 December 2020

Over 600 families will receive special food and Christmas parcels thanks to council campaign success and the generosity of residents across Gedling Borough who donated to the campaign.

Gedling Borough Council is co-ordinating a festive food parcel delivery to families identified as needing support over the Christmas period. Each parcel will contain fresh food, fruit and vegetables, festive treats, a festive craft pack produced by local play charity the Gedling Play Forum, activity ideas, family recipes and important wellbeing advice.

The parcels, which are being put together by volunteers at one of the council’s leisure centres, the Richard Herrod Centre, will be delivered between 14 – 18 December and will be distributed through the local schools and family support teams network.

The council launched a Feeding Gedling Children campaign in October and raised £10,000 in support of footballer Marcus Rashford’s campaign to end child food poverty. Hundreds of residents donated to the cause and the money is now being used to create and deliver the 600 parcels.

The council has worked with local churches, family support groups, children’s services and schools to identify the most vulnerable families in the borough who would benefit from the Feeding Gedling funding.

Deputy Leader of Gedling Borough Council, Councillor Michael Payne said

“It is vitally important that we support our most vulnerable residents during this pandemic. We set up a fundraising campaign and thanks to the generosity of residents, we were able to create the parcels that will be delivered directly to the families that need them the most. The parcels contain essential food and vegetables but they also have activity packs, games and festive treats that we hope will bring a smile to the faces of children this Christmas.

We would like to thank the local community, schools and children’s services for their support to get these parcels distributed to the families and to the residents who donated to this cause. 

If anyone else needs help this winter, please visit the council’s Giving for Gedling webpage or call our Customer Services team on 0115 901 3901.”