Tag: #AshVillagesFoodParcelsProject

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Food Parcels Project Newsletter Summer 2024

(Ash Villages Food Parcels Project)

Ash Villages Food Parcels Project & Ash Vale Community Fridge

Newsletter Summer 2024

Introducing…Ash Villages Food Parcels Project:

We are here to help anyone who is struggling in Ash, Ash Vale, Ash Green and Tongham. What started as a crisis project during Covid, has become part of the furniture locally, and we will be here for as long as we are needed.

We rely on grants & generous donations from individuals, businesses, schools and clubs for our store cupboard items, and all our parcels are prepared and delivered by a wonderful team of local volunteers. We also receive fresh food donations from Co-op in Ash & Ash Vale, Tesco, and Bookers, adding short dated items to the menu each week, food that would otherwise have gone to waste.

We have put together this leaflet to pop on your fridge and refer back to when you need us, or pass on to a friend. We hope it’s useful, and feedback is always welcomed.

With our best wishes to all our clients, the lovely volunteer team, our brilliant supporters, and to all of you in our local community. Have a fun and fabulous Summer 2024!

Alex Sanderson BEM (Project Manager)

Revd Neil Lambert (St Mary’s Church Ash Vale)

Cllr Carla Morson (Ash Villages Support Circle)

This is a joint project between the Ash Villages Support Circle (Carla) and St Mary’s Church Ash Vale (Revd Neil) Charity Number 1152717 and we are kindly hosted at The Chapel Project on Wharf Rd GU12 5AY. Project Manager Tel. 07730 609446 Website: https://ash-vale.org.uk/foodparcels-2/ Donations: https://givealittle.co/c/3ijYS6zC4gbOGqwer2tmdY

Know someone who is struggling?

Citizens Advice can help with things like benefits reviews, food bank referrals, advice and emergency loans. They can also refer new clients to us here in Ash Vale for a parcel.

Local Citizens Advice: 08082787888

UK Number: 0800 144 8848

Website: https://casws.org.uk/

Did you know? If you have had a food parcel from the Ash Villages Food Parcels Project before, and need another one, you can phone/text/WhatsApp direct on 07730 609446. You do not need another referral.

Welcome to… The Ash Vale Community Fridge

This simple project opened in June 2023. The fridge is located in the community shed in the Chapel car park on Wharf Rd GU12 5AY. It’s open 24/7 for you to drop off food you don’t need, or take food home that you can use. It’s pot luck, no guarantees, but it’s free, and it is open to everyone. What a great way to reduce food waste! 

One big ask – please do make a note in the red folder in the shed when you drop off or pick up food, so we can keep track of how much we save from being wasted and report back to our funders. In June—Dec 2023 we saved over 1000kg! We are grateful to Co-Op and Hubbub for making this project possible.

Did you know? This is a separate project from the food parcels and is for everyone to share food. You do not need a referral for the Community Fridge. Enjoy!

We have more news than space! More online…

You can read more about these projects, supporters and volunteers here: https://ash-vale.org.uk/foodparcels-2/

Creating Community—Come and join in!

Did you know? We have community groups running almost every day. We would love to welcome you.

MONDAYS Chapel Café (SCC Warm Welcome Venue / HSBMC Warm Space) is on Mondays in term time at The Chapel on Wharf Rd GU12 5AY. We are open 9:30-12:30. includes hot drinks and simple lunch. (free / by donation)

TUESDAYS Little Lambs Library (baby & toddler group) at St Mary’s on Vale Road GU12 5JE. Tuesdays in term time 10:00-11:30 includes drink & biscuit, craft, bouncy castle, story & songs. All welcome. (free / by donation)

WEDNESDAYS: Chapel Kids (baby & toddler group / HSBMC Warm Space) is at The Chapel on Wharf Rd GU12 5AY. Wednesdays in term time 11:00-14:00 includes cuppa and singing, then craft and play. We have lunch together too— bring a picnic or enjoy the beans on toast (or similar) and then play until everyone needs a nap! In the summer we enjoy the Chapel Community Garden. (free / by donation)

FRIDAYS Community Café (SCC Warm Welcome Venue) is on Fridays in term time at St Mary’s on Vale Road. GU12 5JE. We are open 10:00-13:00 includes hot drinks and simple lunch. We also open in the summer holidays on the same weeks as Picnic and Play. (free / by donation)

SUNDAYS Church Services at St Mary’s (with Sunday School) 10:30am start. We also offer refreshments in the large hall after the service. All welcome!

Summer Holidays: PICNIC AND PLAY at The Chapel on Wednesdays in the holidays 11:30am-3pm on 31st July, 7th Aug, 14th Aug, 21st Aug. Free picnic, craft activities, games and outdoor play. Bookings 07730 609446.  

St Mary’s Summer Fair: Saturday 7th Sept 12-3pm If you woukd like a stall at this event please get in touch with Martin via the Parish Office parishoffice@ash-vale.org.uk

How you can help the Food Parcels Project

Donating Food: We use the app “Bank the Food” to let you know what we need most urgently. Or you can donate any store cupboard items like tins, pasta, teabags and rice and drop them off at the Ash Vale Co-Op, Ash Manor School, St Mary’s Church or The Chapel. If your school, business, club or church would like to help us with a collection at Harvest we would love to hear from you!  Thank you for your support.

Donating your plastic bags: If you have any spare plastic bags, we need them for the food parcels please. You can drop them off at The Chapel in the community shed next time you visit the Community Fridge. Thank you!

Donate Funds: Funds are a big help so we can buy in what is urgently needed (eg specific baby formula, bulk buys of tins etc) You can use our “Give A Little” online giving page here: https://givealittle.co/c/3ijYS6zC4gbOGqwer2tmdY.  Or pop a donation in an envelope, and deliver it to The Chapel or St Mary’s and mark the envelope “Foodbank” Thank you for your generous support.

Giving your time: We are always in need of volunteers. These superheroes make the magic happen! We need help with all sorts of tasks – collecting donations, sorting donations, packing parcels, delivering parcels, fundraising, cleaning and tidying, chatting to clients and making cups of tea, Contact Alex to find out more 07730 609446 Thank you for your time and talents!

What a wonderful community we live in!

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A Generous Gift

 Wow – feeling very humbled this week! We were just tidying up the stock at the Food Parcels Project on Monday, and thinking about the next lot of shopping to do to make sure we can meet all the needs locally. We were just sorting out my list…. need more size 1 and 4 nappies, run out of one type of formula, need some more uht milk, running low on tinned fruit and jam etc etc…when suddenly a lovely gentleman arrived unannounced and gave us a wonderful cash donation! He did not give a name, so a huge big THANK YOU! to the “mystery man” who has just paid for the foodbank top up shop this week. What a wonderful community we live in. 

if you would like to know more about this project please click on ‘Food Parcels and Fridge’ in the menu on this page.

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Food Parcels Update and The community Organisations Cost of Living Fund

By Alex Sanderson (Project Manager)

Did you know? Our Ash Villages Food Parcels Proejct received funding from the The Community Organisations Cost of Living Fund to help us keep the project going in 2023/2024. We are so grateful for this government funding, as it makes all the difference for local families. The funding ended in March and we have just finished writing up our end of grant report, so I thought you might like to see a few of the statistics.

I am so incredibly proud of this amazing volunteer team! In 23 weeks they have fed 1300 people. They have been very busy collecting donations, managing the stock, packing and delivering over 400 parcels. The funding we received stocked up the shelves to make sure we could deliver enough food, basic toiletries, and baby bank items to those in urgent need in our local villages of Ash, Ash Vale, Ash Green and Tongham.

Have a guess how many volunteer hours they have racked up between them? We had 32 different volunteers, who worked a total of 373 shifts, donating a staggering 648 hours of their time between them during these 23 weeks. What a huge thing to do for the community. Thank you all so much!

If you would like me to pass on a message to them for you, please email me projectmanager@Ash-Vale.org.uk and I will be sure to share it in our team chat!

Have a happy week!

Alex

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Please vote for the Food Parcels Project!

Fund our local Food Parcels Project…by giving us your vote at Co-Op! Vote online or via their App. The voting link is here: https://membership.coop.co.uk/causes/76829

The Ash Villages Food Parcels Project serves local people in Ash, Ash Vale, Ash Green and Tongham. We deliver emergency food and toiletries to local people in crisis, and offer a listening ear. Your vote will mean we receive more funding. Thank you for your support.

How this cause brings people in the community together: Our Food Parcels project helps local people in crisis, providing emergency food and toiletries. Referrals come from CAB, Wellbeing Team, Social Services, DWP and local churches too. As well as food, we offer a listening ear, and help to connect people to other sources of help, including Chapel Cafe and local warm hubs. We are connecting with people to battle against the anxiety, isolation and mental strain that goes hand in hand with food poverty. We can all work together to make sure that none of our neighbours go hungry. Our donors and grant funders are wonderful and the lovely team of volunteers are amazing at what they do.

So please – Vote today, and spread the word to encourage others to help us too!

Thank you. https://membership.coop.co.uk/causes/76829

The Ash Villages Food Parcels Project is a joint project between St Mary’s Church in Ash Vale (Revd Neil Lambert) and the Ash Villages Support Circle (Carla Morson), kindly hosted at The Chapel Project on Wharf Rd. If you need to contact us you can contact our Project Manager Alex Sanderson on foodparcels@ash-vale.org.uk  Tel.: 07730 609446

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Thank you – and please keep voting!

This is wonderful news! The local Food Parcels team would like to say a big thank you to everyone who voted for us recently on the Co-op Communtiy page! Your votes have helped us to raise £1,171.07 so far, to help feed local families in crisis.

Please keep voting! Every vote for St Mary’s means more funding for the Ash Villages Food Parcels Project. We need as many votes as possible before 24th October 2024, to secure further funding from the Co-op community fund for winter 2024. Please choose us as your local cause here: https://membership.coop.co.uk/causes/76829

Community Forum: Would you like to talk to the community team have your say? Co-op is hosting a community forum on 21st March at the Ash Parish Centre. Local people are welcome to join in and share their views. Book your place and join in to find out more by clicking on this link: Your local Coop Community forum for Ash and the surrounding villages (smartsurvey.co.uk)

Thank you for your support!

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Lovely donations from Ash Vale Rainbows!

We would like to say a lovely big thank you to the wonderful Ash Vale Rainbows at St Mary’s, who have donated some brilliant things for the Food Parcels Project last week! So much thought has gone in to what you have given, it was lovely unpacking them all and popping them on the shelves ready to go out to local families in need.

The Ash Villages Food Parcels Project helps people in need in Ash, Ash Vale, Ash Green and Tongham. The donations you have made will make a big difference to local neighbours who are facing difficult times.

What a wonderful goup, thank you for your support!

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Harvest Thanks to everyone at St Mary’s!

The local Food Parcels team would like to say a big Harvest Festival *THANK YOU* to everyone at St Mary’s church, and everyone who dropped off their wonderful food donations for the harvest collection there.  This amazing generosity is what helps the project to keep going and enables us to keep helping families in need.  These donations are a big blessing.  

Thanks to Revd Neil Lambert, these lovely tins and packets, toiletries and treats have now been packed, collected and transported, and are now safely on the shelves at the #AshVillagesFoodParcelsProject and will go out in the food parcels in the next week or two. Thank you all so much for your support! It really matters, and every tin makes a difference. 

We wish you a blessed and happy Autumn!

#AshVillagesFoodParcelsProject 

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Thank you Frimley Green! 

We would like to say a very big thank you to everyone at Frimley Green Methodist Church this week. We were delighted to receive a wonderful delivery of amazing Harvest Festival donations for the Ash Villages Food Parcels Project today. What a great way to show love for our neighbours and celebrate our blessings. This week’s parcels will be extra special with beautiful fresh fruit and veg, bread and store cupboard items. 

THANK YOU! 

With our very best wishes from everyone at The Chapel and the Ash Villages Food Parcels Project. 

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Food Parcels Harvest Appeal 2023

Harvest is coming up and as always the church celebrates and gives thanks for all our blessings! We also collect for those in need, bringing donations to our Harvest Festival Service on the 8th October. If you would like to join in you can join us at 10:30am on the day, or donate any time beforehand. 

Here is the list of the weekly items that our local Ash Villages Food Parcels team use for a standard food parcel, to give you an idea of what you might donate: 

The tins we get through 30+ a week of each: 

Tomatoes / Sweetcorn / Baked beans / Tuna

Meat (curry or hotdogs or ham or mince or corned beef etc)

Sweet (tinned fruit / rice pudding / custard etc)

Other staples we include every week are: 

Pasta (instant noodles are a great ‘low cost to cook’ option) 

Rice (microwave rice is low cost to heat)

Pasta sauce (again low cost to heat)

Tea / coffee / sugar 

UHT milk & Cereal

Treats occasionally to bring a smile e.g. Biscuits / Jam / crisps / sweets 

We also try to include fresh items to support healthier eating: 

Potatoes / Onions / Carrots / Apples / Eggs

Any of the above that you might like to donate would be much appreciated thank you. You could pick one item and donate a few of the same, or pick a couple of things from the list, or even pick one of each and donate the necessary for a whole weekly parcel. 

Alternatively you could choose to support us with toiletries and “Baby bank” items:

Shower gel / Shampoo / Sanitary items / Soap

Nappies / baby wipes / Baby formula / Baby food pouches

Laundry pods (we divide packs between families)

Supporting those with much loved Pets: We also like to be able to give out cat food and dog food if people are able to donate those, so that families can afford to keep much loved pets. 

Where to send things:

Donations for the Harvest Festival service collection can be dropped off at St Mary’s Church on Vale Rd, GU12 5JE whenever we are open. (E.G Sunday church services are 10:30am-12:00 / Toddlers on Tuesdays 10:00-11:30 / Cafe on Fridays 10:00-13:00) 

Throughout the year you can also take donations directly to the team at the Chapel on Wharf Rd GU12 5AY, where we pack the parcels. The team is there packing parcels on Wednesdays and Fridays 8:45-9:30am or contact us to make other arrangements if these times don’t work for you. You can also choose to leave items in the community shed in the Chapel car park. Please clearly label the bag “Donation for the food parcels”. 

Do you take donations of funds too? Yes please! 

If shopping is inconvenient we do also very gladly accept donations of funds. We can buy in bulk which keeps the cost down and makes your money go even further to feed more families.

You can donate by cash or cheque at St Mary’s church Ash Vale, which our Treasurer allocates to the restricted fund for food parcels – just write on the envelope or on the back of the cheque what the donation is for and he ensures it goes in the right account.

We can send you the details for a bank transfer or regular standing order if you prefer.  This just requires you to put “Food Parcels” as the reference so again we can assign the funds to the right project.

For immediate online donations we have a church account with the “Give a little” donations platform and the link for the Food Parcels project is here: https://givealittle.co/campaigns/7a47190c-ad4e-4cf9-8662-da844101a41c  this platform allows you to sign up for monthly regular giving, or a one-off donation, whichever you would like to do.

Whatever you decide to do – thank you very much for your support!

If you’d like to know more please contact: 07730609446

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SPARKS funding for Ash Villages Food Parcels Project

Just like so many other charities, churches and community projects, the Ash Villages Food Parcels Project is suffering from a reduction in donations of food, toiletries and funds as everyone adjusts their budgets to get through the cost of living crisis. We are doing all we can to keep costs very tightly controlled and have been more public about asking for help on social media recently. However, funding is very tight and we are in need of more help to keep the service going for as long as it is needed.

Today we are delighted to share some good news – the SPARKS fund has awarded us enough funds to fill our food parcels for 5 weeks! The SPARKS fund is part of Voluntary Action South West Surrey, helping communities impacted by covid19 and its wider impact on health and wellbeing. This is a very welcome grant indeed, and will make a huge difference to the local people we support in Ash, Ash Vale, Ash Green and Tongham. Every parcel is a response to help a person or family in crisis, and every penny of this grant will be providing food and essential toiletries to those in need in the coming weeks.

We hope that all our friends and neighbours in the local area will keep the Ash Villages Food Parcels Project in your thoughts and prayers as we head towards autumn and winter. Please do get in touch if you would like to volunteer, donate or collect tins at your school / company / club / church / shop / and please keep us in mind especially as Harvest Festival approaches. We would be very grateful for any contributions of store cupboard foods, essential toiletries or indeed funds which we use to buy supplies in bulk. We also accept donations online via Give a Little here:

https://givealittle.co/campaigns/7a47190c-ad4e-4cf9-8662-da844101a41c

Thank you for your support and wishing you a wonderful summer,

Alex & Carla

#AshVillagesFoodParcelsProject #FoodBank #AshVale #AshGreen #Tongham #Ash #Community

Contact us about the project: 07730 609446 / foodparcels@ash-vale.org.uk