Tag: #AshVillagesFoodParcelsProject

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Foodbank celebrates donation from Ash Parish Council

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 

Cllr Carla and team fundraising at the Ash Village Fair
Some of our Foodbank Heroes in 2024
Cheque Presentation from Cllr John, Cllr Fiona and Ali
Foodbank team celebrating the wonderful donation from Ash Parish Council

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. 

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A big Co-op Celebration for the Foodbank !

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.

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Quiz Night Thank You!

Wow!! A big THANK YOU to David Brown and all the quizzers tonight at the Victoria Hall! An amazing amount raised, and £426.50 of it is going to the Ash Villages Food Parcels Project, to support families in need locally.

Thank you so much, this will make an huge difference, especially during the cold winter when balancing the costs of heating and eating are a challenge for many.

Thank you for a super evening and see you at the next one!

#AshVillagesFoodParcelsProject #ashvictoriahall #FoodBank #Community #AshVillagesSupportCircle

Food Parcels Project & Community Fridge
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Foodbank needs in 2025?

Have you made a New Year resolution to help those in need in the community? There’s an app for that! “Bank the food” Have a guess – what’s the item we most urgently need? You can find out on the app.

Choose any foodbank to support on the app. Our local one is called the Ash Villages Food Parcels Project. Download the app here:
https://www.bankthefood.org

You can find out more about our Ash Villages Food Parcels Project here: https://ash-vale.org.uk/foodparcels-2/

You can also simply donate to St Mary’s in support of all our projects (community cafe, Chapel, toddlers, net zero programme… ) pop in or contact us to find out more.

We wish you every blessing in 2025. Come in and join us, any Sunday 10:30am for the church service and / or cuppa afterwards, we would love to welcome you.

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That’s a wrap! Christmas Foodbank 2024

Hats off to the Wonderful Wednesday team and the Fabulous Friday Foodbank team who packed and delivered a record number of Christmas Food Parcels this week. Big shout out to our delivery drivers who responded to the SOS for help as well when we needed more hands on deck. It’s sad that so many of our neighbours are in need, but what a joy to be able to help make Christmas a little better in this way. Huge thanks to all involved, and everyone who donated so generously towards the Christmas Foodbank this week. We couldn’t have done it without you! Enormous amount of food and gifts donated, wrapped, packed and delivered with love from the local community to our neighbours who are struggling. Our community is the best! Everyone looks after each other, this is why we love where we live! 💕✨🎄🙏🎁💐💕✨


Ps – Foodbank is closed on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Our amazing volunteers are back in action the week after. If you need a referral you can contact citizens advice, social services, GP, school, other agencies, or any of our local churches and they can refer you to us. The foodbank team packs and delivers parcels on Wednesday and Friday mornings. The deadline for contacting us is 5pm the night before.
If you would like to help us, we need support every week to look after anyone who needs help that week. This need is all year round! How about making a regular donation? Thank you! https://givealittle.co/c/7a47190c-ad4e-4cf9-8662-da844101a41c

Food Parcels Project & Community Fridge
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Thank you Ash Manor School!

Thank you to everyone at Ash Manor school who has given such thoughtful and lovely donations to our foodbank this term.  Your wonderful Student Heads of House and Mr Hicks gave us a warm welcome, and helped us to pack the donated items. We collected everything this morning, and took your gifts to the Chapel ready for the final Christmas Food Parcels on Friday.

With this kindness and generosity, you are helping to make Christmas a lot brighter for local families who need support this year. It makes a huge difference. What a wonderful community we have here, where everyone looks after one another. Thank you for your support! 

Photo by kind permission from the school

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A Christmas Thank You 

The amazing Zumba and Zumba Gold classes run by Shell and Jo locally have all chipped in and donated a huge amount in support of #AshVillagesFoodParcelsProject this week, and we are hugely grateful for this wonderful support. We have been so blessed to receive lovely gifts to hand out, food items for the parcels, Christmas treats, and funds towards the Christmas Foodbank parcels. You are helping us to help local people in very difficult times. It will bless a lot of people’s Christmases! Thank you, from the Food Parcels team, and please know that this is a big help to all our clients in Ash, Ash Vale, Ash Green and Tongham. 

Further support has also gone to the Care and Share Shelf outside St Peter’s in Ash. This is another amazing local food project that provides help to anyone who needs it, no questions asked. 

Have a super Christmas one and all! 

If you would like to know more about Zumba and Zumba Gold classes with Shell and Jo 

Their Facebook link is here: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/15MrR22RsG/?mibextid=wwXIfr 

More about the Ash Villages Food Parcels Project here: https://ash-vale.org.uk/foodparcels-2/ 

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Christmas Foodbank Appeal 2024

It’s nearly time for our lovely team at the #AshVillagesFoodParcelsProject to pack the Christmas parcels and take some festive cheer to local people in need. Your help and support with donations, funds, prayers and sharing this appeal far and wide would be greatly appreciated!

If you would like to donate food, toys or gifts , please bring your donations in by the 15th December. You can come to The Chapel (Wharf rd) on Wednesday or Monday 9am-2:30pm or pop in to St Mary’s (Vale Rd) on Friday or Sunday 10:00-13:00. There is a live list of what’s most needed on the App ‘Bank the Food’ if you need inspiration, or simply bring something Christmassy! We love to be able to give out all the Christmas classics from Turkey and parsnips to mince pies, pudding and custard. We also give our presents of sweets, chocolates, winter warmers, new toys, hot water bottles, socks etc, nice toiletries, … all much needed please!

If you would prefer to give funds towards the food that we buy in (fresh veg, turkey, milk, pasta, fruit, tins etc) you can donate online here: https://givealittle.co/c/3ijYS6zC4gbOGqwer2tmdY

We also need volunteers, for gift wrapping and deliveries 16th-20th. If you are interested please contact us on 07730609446 for more details.

Thank you for supporting us in whatever way you can. It really does make all the difference! Let’s bless our neighbours in need in Ash, Ash Vale, Ash Green and Tongham this Christmas.

PS – if you are based locally and need a foodbank referral please contact your local Citizens Advice, GP, school, local churches, social worker, health visitor and other agencies who can refer you to us. We cover Ash, Ash Vale, Ash Green and Tongham. Referrals must be in by 15th December for Christmas, We are closed 25-27 Dec while our volunteers take a well deserved break.

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Thank you to the Cubs!

The foodbank team would like to say a very big thank you to the local Cub Scouts who visited tonight. They brought some wonderful, thoughtful donations, decorated our Foodbank Christmas tree and came up with some super ideas for a foodbank recipe book.
You are very welcome to pop back to the Chapel for the Christmas Fair on Saturday so you can show your families your handiwork! It was lovely to see you all, come back again soon.


#Foodbank #AshVillagesFoodParcelsProject #CubScouts #1stAshValeCubs