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News and information from our community Food Parcels project.
Calling all food parcels volunteers past and present! The team is celebrating 5 years of the ash villages food parcels project! Open house for tea and cake at the chapel on Thursday 24th April 2-6pm, we would love to see you! Drop in any time! RSVP so we can cater, and you’re welcome to bring the kids / partners etc
See you soon! #AshVillagesFoodParcelsProject
The Ash Villages Food Parcels Project started originally as a covid support project, but is now the local food bank for Ash, Ash Vale, Ash Green and Tongham. We are 5 years old this April! The team would all like to wish all our friends and neighbours, clients and supporters a very happy Easter.
With the cost of living a real struggle at the moment, we are busier than ever. Would you like to donate? The team use 30-40 tins a week of tomatoes, beans, soup, sweetcorn, tuna, tinned meat (curry or hotdogs or similar), pasta sauce, tinned fruit and jam. They are also always in need of pasta, rice, tea, coffee, sugar, cereal and UHT milk. Fresh fruit and veg and seasonal treats are always welcomed too. If donations are given, we also give out toiletries, laundry pods and pet food. If you would like to donate you can pop items into the donations baskets at the Ash Vale Co-op or Ash Manor School, or you can visit the Chapel on Wharf Rd or St Mary’s on Vale Rd whenever they are open, or contact the team to arrange a drop-off on 07762136542. If you prefer to donate funds and let us do the shopping, you can give online here: https://givealittle.co/c/7a47190c-ad4e-4cf9-8662-da844101a41c Just imagine – if we had 200 people donating £10 a month we would be fully funded all year round!!
Thank you for your support, it makes a big difference.
Thank you to all the families, students and staff at Ash Manor School who donated for the #AshVillagesFoodParcelsProject this Easter. You are community heroes!
These amazing donations were sorted by the youth volunteers on Thursday night and most of the items went into Food Parcels this morning, delivered to local doorsteps by our fantastic Foodbank volunteer team.
Donations included all sorts – from tinned tomatoes to Easter treats – what a wonderful help for our neighbours in need in Ash, Ash Vale, Ash Green and Tongham. Thank you all for your support.
#Community #Foodbank #AshManorSchool
Did you know? The foodbank has an Amazon wishlist here:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/X2K6QAR8VM5X?ref_=wl_share
We also use the app “bank the food” to let everyone know what we need the most.
Donations of store cupboard donations can be dropped off at Ash Manor in the foyer, or in the donations basket at Ash Vale Co-op or at St Mary’s church (Vale Rd) or The Chapel (Wharf Rd) whenever we are open. Thank you!
Our local Food Parcels Project started during Covid, and has become the local Foodbank for Ash, Ash Vale, Ash Green and Tongham. We feed local people in all different situations and difficulties every week.
You can use the app “Bank the food” to see what we need most urgently each week. Download the app, and a quick search for Ash Vale in the App will allow you to choose is from the list of Foodbanks needing donations. We would be very glad of your support. (We are of course grateful for all donations, any tins, pasta, nappies, uht milk etc so you don’t have to use the app, but if you do use it, the advantage is that you can see what we need most urgently. It is entirely up to you how you choose to support us) https://www.bankthefood.org
The last step is getting the donations to us. If you shop in the village you can pop items in the collecting basket at Ash Vale Co-op (tap your membership card while you’re in there and collect point for the community fund please!). Wherever you shop, you can buy items to donate and drop them off at St Mary’s Church on Vale Road or The Chapel on Wharf Road whenever they are open. You can also drop Donations off at Ash Manor School in the donations box in their foyer.
We do the rest, packing parcels and making sure they reach our neighbours in need, in our local community of Ash, Ash Vale, Ash Green and Tongham. #AshVillagesFoodParcelsProject
Thank you for your support, it makes a huge difference to local people in crisis.
Alex, Neil, Carla and all the team.
PS – if you are struggling to afford enough to eat, you can be referred to us for a food parcel by Citizens Advice / Job Centre / local churches / health visitor / social services / schools / Guildford borough wellbeing team and other agencies, or pop in and see us at The Chapel Cafe on Mondays in term time 9:30-12:30.
Choose St Mary’s, Ash Vale (Chapel Project) as your Local Community Fund cause on the Co-op app for a chance to win £500 for you and £5,000 for us. If you win, so do we! Every time you spend £5 @coopuk, you’ll be entered into the Winners Share It All prize draw. Start swiping your membership card today.
Here are some of the charities who have won already: https://www.coop.co.uk/blog/when-co-op-members-win-their-local-community-does-too
Please choose us and swipe your card in store with every purchase. You could help win much needed funds for The Chapel Project! Thank you.
Morning all! Tuesday 4th March is pancake day – join us for the party at st Mary’s 4-6pm for one of Neil’s legendary pancakes plus races, craft, and a cuppa 💕
Also this week – Toddlers is on as usual this week, see you today 10am for Little Lambs Library here at St Mary’s on Vale Road and on Wednesday 11am over at the Chapel on Wharf Rd for Chapelkids.
Were you part of the local fundraising events in 2024? If you joined in with the Ash Village Fair, Ash Fantasia and more, we want to say a big thank you! As Ash Parish Council’s chosen charity for 2024 we have just received an amazing donation, which will help feed local people in crisis for 5-6 weeks, a huge help this winter.
The Ash Villages Food Parcels Project is a joint project between St Mary’s Church Ash Vale and the Ash Villages Support Circle led by Cllr Carla Morson*. We have been running the project together for 5 years, first as a covid crisis response and more recently it has evolved into our very own local foodbank for Ash, Ash Vale, Ash Green and Tongham. Last year our amazing team of volunteers sourced, sorted, packed and delivered food for 1040 parcels, feeding 3331 people and also ran the Community Fridge which feeds many more people locally.
The team are celebrating this wonderful donation, have a look at the photos! Our charity cheque was kindly presented by Cllr Fiona White, Cllr John Tonks and Ali Watmore the Ash Parish Council Clerk. Thank you Ash Parish Council and thank you to the whole community who have made this donation possible. It will mean that we can support many struggling families in 2025.
Best wishes and thanks
Alex, Revd Neil and Carla
Note – if you are struggling and need help with a food parcel you can be referred to us via citizens advice, social services, DWP, local churches, schools and other agencies. We cover Ash, Ash Vale, Ash Green and Tongham. https://ash-vale.org.uk/foodparcels-2/
* note – Carla of course declared a non pecuniary interest (she does not receive any money from the project, but is one of the founders and leaders), and did not vote when we were selected as charity of the year 2024.
Please can we ask everyone to vote for St Mary’s with a blue token in the local Tesco each time you shop? Our “Fruit for Kids” project will enable us to put more healthy fruit in the foodbank parcels and also give out fruit at our toddler groups Little Lambs Library and Chapel Kids.
Please ask everyone you know to vote in-store with their blue token by Monday 31st March 2025. Every blue token helps. The more tokens we get, the more funding we stand to receive from Tesco for this simple but important project. Vote for us today!
Thank you for your support!
#Tesco #FruitForKids #StrongerStarts #Groundworks #StMarysAshVale #AshValeChapel #ChapelKids #LittleLambsLibrary #AshVillagesFoodParcelsProject #Foodbank #BabyAndToddlerGroups
I have been collating all the annual foodbank data today and thought you would be interested to know the headline statistics for the Ash Villages Food Parcels Project for 2024. This is a community project jointly run by St Mary’s Church Ash Vale (Revd Neil Lambert) and the Ash Villages Support Circle (Cllr Carla Morson) for the benefit of all in the local community who are in need.
I am so proud of this team and all the work we do, what a huge difference this makes in our local community. We can say with confidence that no one in our local community need ever go hungry. There is help at hand every week, and the team are always going the extra mile to make sure that everyone has what they need. What a blessing you all are to our community in these difficult times! A big thank you to everyone involved.
Best wishes,
Alex (Project Manager)
PS – This data is for the foodbank alone, and does not include the food distributed via the Community Fridge, so there are even more families out there who have been fed anonymously!)
PPS – would you like to support this project? You can bring food items to St Mary’s or The Chapel, donate at Ash Manor School or in store at the Co-op on Wharf Rd. You can also donate funds online here: https://givealittle.co/c/7a47190c-ad4e-4cf9-8662-da844101a41c Thank you for your support!
Need to contact us? Referrals number is: 07762 136542
Did you know? The Co-op offers members the chance to win £500 for themselves and £5,000 for their chosen local cause in their ‘Winners Share It All’ monthly prize draw.
A wonderful local hero right here in Ash Vale won in 2024 and nomiated the Ash Villages Food Parcels Project to win too! This means a £500 win for them and a £5,000 prize for the local foodbank! We are all celebrating this amazing donation, what a wonderful boost for the foodbank, and all the local people in need who use this lifeline when life gets tough. The Ash Villages Food Parcels Project is a vital lifeline to many in Ash, Ash Vale, Ash Green and Tongham, and we cannot do it without the food donations and the funds to buy supplies. This prize made all the difference especially during the cold of winter, the time of year when we see lots of local families in need. It was a great help during the Christmas period when we had over 80 families in need in 1 week!
We don’t have photos of everyone yet, still waiting for a few snaps from the team, but here are some of the foodbank packing and deliveries team, plus local community champions and some of the lovely volunteers and co-op staff who help get the donations of food from store to foodbank in the evenings. A huge big community thank you to all involved!
Have you chosen your local Co-op community fund cause for 2025? Please remember to keep voting! Select us when you go online or download the co-op members app, so we are your chosen charity. Please choose https://membership.coop.co.uk/causes/90078 The Chapel Project ( St Mary’s) to keep supporting all the work we do at The Chapel, including hosting the community fridge and foodbank as well as the Chapel Cafe, toddler group and more. …And of course keep tapping your blue membership card whenever you shop in store for your own personal members prices and other benefits. That way, everybody wins, including you!
If you would like to donate tins / food directly to the Food Parcels Project you can donate in store in Ash Vale Co-op on Wharf Rd (basket by the tills), or at St Mary’s on Vale Road or The Chapel on Wharf Rd whenever they are open. Ash Manor School also has a donations box in reception. We use the app called “bank the food” to let you know what we need most urgently. Thank you for your support!
And finally – the easist way to support us without moving from your armchair is a donation online here: https://givealittle.co/c/7a47190c-ad4e-4cf9-8662-da844101a41c Funds donated for the foodbank go towards tins, pasta, fruit, veg, uht milk etc to make sure we can give every client a balanced nutricious parcel whenever they are in need. We can genuinely say that no one in our local community needs to go hungry while this amazing project is running. Thank you for supporting us and celebrating with us!
With all our best wishes and thanks from the Foodbank Team.