Tag: #AshVillagesFoodParcelsProject

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WI supports local Foodbank

The Ash Villages Food Parcels Project would like to say a huge thank you to the Ash Hill Evening WI Meeting members.

Alex Sanderson (Project Manager) reports…

What a wonderful evening we had yesterday! I was very kindly invited to visit the WI for their January meeting at St Mary’s. The welcome was very warm, and it was lovely catching up with friends old and new – and some of our wonderful volunteers past and present as well!

I was delighted to give a talk about the Foodbank, and share the ups and downs of our journey with this ever-growing project. What started as an emergency response to people going hungry in Covid-19 has now become the go-to Foodbank for anyone in need in Ash, Ash Vale, Ash Green and Tongham. We fed over 4,600 people in 2025, and 128 households received a Christmas Parcel to bring some seasonal joy in difficult times.

Your support is so kind, and much needed. Huge thanks to the WI for your donation of £250, a fantastic amount raised throughout the year, which will go towards filling parcels with good food in 2026. Thank you too for the lovely donations of tins, packets and lovely treats which you all brought in yesterday. Every item makes a big difference to local people in need, and it is through your help that we can make this happen.

We welcome donations of anything with a long shelf life (tins, packets etc) throughout the year, and are always glad of any spare carrier bags for our food parcels to be sent out in. Most of you know where my porch is, open 9am-9pm for donations, or you can bring things and pop them in the St Mary’s church foyer any time you are here for a WI meeting. You can even use the donations basket in the Ash Vale Co-op. Thank you to all of you who downloaded the “Bank the Food” App, so you can always see what is most needed from week to week. https://www.bankthefood.com/ (If anyone missed the meeting here is the link).

The joy of being very much a grassroots project is that the community all knows one another, and it makes me proud to know that no-one need ever go hungry in our local villages, thanks to generous people like you. While we wish our project was not needed at all, we are glad that we can help our neighbours. In the words of one of our clients recently in their message to us “Thank you all so much, you have helped us more than you know”.

Happy New Year 2026, and on behalf of Revd Neil Lambert, Cllr Carla Morson, all the volunteer team and our clients locally – thank you for your support.

Alex

Alex Sanderson: projectmanager@ash-vale.org.uk

Ash Villages Food Parcels Project:

https://ash-vale.org.uk/foodparcels-2/

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Christmas Foodbank 2025… Can you help?

The local Food Parcels Project for Ash, Ash Vale, Tongham and Ash Green is appealing for Christmas Hamper items, toys and winter warmers for local families this Christmas.

Not everyone will be in a position to help this year, but if you can, we will be very thankful. Donations can be dropped off on or before Sunday 14th December at St Mary’s Church Vale Rd on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays 9:30-12:30 or at The Chapel Wharf Rd on Wednesdays 9:00-14:00 or at other times by arrangement (please text 07730609446) THANK YOU!

Ideas for things to donate? Hot water bottles, warm socks, fluffy scarves, childrens toys, sweets and treats, cranberry sauce, mince pies, festive biscuits, Christmas cake, crackers, Christmas pudding, custard, evaporated milk, stuffing mix, gravy granules,  chocolates, seasonal fruit and veg, tinned ham, christmas activity books, board games, crisps, festive toiletries… think about what makes your Christmas special – let’s share some of that Christmas joy!

The need is greater than ever this year, and we are likely to need parcels for over 100 families. We need your support please, to be able to help them all, and bring some wonderful festive cheer to every family in need.

If you like, you can download the ‘Bank the food’ App which lists suggestions and shows what items are most urgently needed. It’s a great way to keep in touch. You will find us listed as the Ash Villages Food Parcels Project.

Thank you everyone for your amazing help to make this happen. We can’t do it without you!

Thank you for your support, and may you be wonderfully blessed this Christmas.

More about the project on the foodbank blog here: https://ash-vale.org.uk/foodparcels-2/

Download the ‘bank the food’ app here:

https://www.bankthefood.com

Project Manager: 07730609446 projectmanager@ash-vale.org.uk

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HARVEST THANKS

A huge HARVEST THANK YOU to all at St Mary’s Ash Vale, for the wonderful foodbank donations from the Harvest Festival on Sunday.

We collected your gifts on Tuesday and they went out in the food parcels today, with some items left for the parcels on Friday. The Wednesday team fed 22 families with your generous donations today, some large families, some single people in need, food for 61 people in total. And more parcels will go out on Friday to other families too.

Thank you for your support! #AshVillagesFoodParcelsProject


Our web page has more info here:
https://ash-vale.org.uk/foodparcels-2/

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Harvest Gifts from Northcamp Methodist Church

What a blessing this morning! The Ash Villages Food Parcels Team were delighted to receive Harvest donations today from Northcamp Methodist church. A lovely array of items, from tins to produce, and all just right for the food parcels that will be going out on Wednesday and Friday this week to local people in need.

Revd Anne personally delivered the donations to The Chapel, our wonderful local ecumenical project, jointly run by St Mary’s Church Ash Vale and the BlackwaterValley Methodist Circuit. The Chapel kindly hosts the Foodbank all year round, and allows us the space for our shelves, fridges and packing parcels. It is a huge blessing to people in urgent need locally in the villages of Ash, Ash Vale, Ash Green and Tongham.

A big harvest THANK YOU to Northcamp Methodist Church, your support is hugely appreciated! https://www.northcampmethodist.co.uk/welcome.htm

Image – Foodbank Team, and Monday Chapel Cafe members, receiving donations for the foodbank from Northcamp Methodist Church, special delivery by Revd Anne.

If you would like to read all about the foodbank… here is our page: https://ash-vale.org.uk/foodparcels-2/ We have been running for over 5 years now, and what started as the local covid support group now runs as a full-blown foodbank in partnership with Ash Villages Support Circle. There are lots of stories on our page, and details of how you can donate, or ask for a referral.

The Chapel Project is here to share Christ’s love with people of all faiths and none through Hospitality, Creativity and Worship. We are home to Monday Chapel Cafe (warm Welcome space), NWCLF church on Sundays, ChapelKids on Wednesdays, as well as the Foodbank mentioned above, also Musicians in Residence Matt and Dan Weeks, Artists in Residence Debi and Jono Retallick, plus seasonal events Picnic and Play, Light Party, Christmas Fair, and of course hall users from the local community. If you want to know more about The Chapel Project please contact Revd Neil Lambert, Revd Anne Day or our Project Manager Alex: projectmanager@ash-vale.org.uk or visit http://www.ashvalechapel.com

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Harvest Festival time – come and join in! (And support the foodbank too!)

Harvest Festival is a wonderful service where we give thanks to God for all our blessings, the wonderful world He created, and the amazing crops harvested at this time of year. Please join us on Sunday 28th September 10:30am and see what it’s all about! All are welcome, whether you’re a regular or a first time church go-er!

One of the things we do to celebrate and give thanks, is to bring donations of food and produce. This year we are once again donating to the Ash Villages Food Parcels Project (local foodbank for Ash, Ash Vale, Ash Green and Tongham), which we run in partnership with the Ash Villages Support Circle and the Chapel Project. Whether you come to our service or not, you can donate for this wonderful cause! We have a box for donations in the foyer, or you can bring donations to the service, or donate funds online using our Give a Little link. https://givealittle.co/c/3ijYS6zC4gbOGqwer2tmdY

What food to donate? Anything in a tin is great, and can be used in the food parcels right away. We use 30-50 tins a week each of things like tomatoes, baked beans, sweetcorn, lentils, tuna, hotdogs, meatballs, chicken curry, soup, rice pudding, fruit, custard, carrots, peas etc. We can also use anything else that has a long shelf life so pasta, rice, cereal, tea, coffee, UHT milk, pasta sauce, even crisps and sweets as a special harvest treat will be appreciated by families. Fresh produce – fruit and veg – is great too, and will go out in the very next round of food parcels (we send parcels out on Wednesdays and Fridays every week.) Or perhaps you might like to put together some “meal packs” pasta and sauce, curry and rice, tinned fruit and custard, noodles and sauce, hotdogs and baked beans  – What’s your go-to storecupboard meal? Local families will really appreciate the thought that goes in to these.

What is most needed? If you would like to see the “live list” of what we most urgently need, we are also on the App called “Bank the Food” and we update this every couple of weeks to let our supporters know what we are most short of. https://www.bankthefood.com/  If you download the app, we should be easy to find (Ash Villages Food Parcels Project).

Before you go! We are decorating the church for Harvest Festival on Saturday 27th September. Would you like to donate flowers and produce for the display? Steph and the team would love to welcome you to come and help make the church look beautiful for Harvest Festival.

And finally – don’t forget Macmillan! Our coffee morning is this Friday 26th Sept 2025 10am-1pm, all welcome! Pop in for a quick cuppa and cake, buy Sue’s delicious array of jams and treats to take away, have a flutter on the raffle, or why not stay all morning and catch up with friends old and new over a slice of cake or stay for a cheese toastie or soup lunch.

See you there!

Thank you for your support.

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Foodbank in the holidays: 

Here’s the latest update from our project manager, to clarify school holiday arrangements just in case you need us this summer: 

Delivery Service: Operating as usual, Wednesdays and Fridays, pre-booked, by referral from the usual agencies / churches, or existing clients can request a repeat. The cut off time is 5pm the night before as usual.

Collection service is limited to Fridays only, at 9:30am sharp, by prior arrangement, and the cut-off for referrals / repeats is by the usual time of 5pm on Thursdays. There are no Wednesday collections available in the school holidays. 

No walk-in service available in the school holidays. All referrals / repeats are required pre-book for a delivery or collection.

Big thank you to our amazing volunteers! Please keep our wonderful team of volunteers in your thoughts and prayers as they work very hard to keep the foodbank running all year round. 

Donations are always welcomed, and can be dropped off at St Mary’s or The Chapel whenever we are open. Please use the ‘Bank the food’ App to see what we need most urgently, or you can donate the usual tins, uht milk, pasta, rice etc as we use those every week to help local families in need.

Thank you for your support!

#AshVillagesFoodParcelsProject #CommunityFoodbank 

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National Lottery Community Fund news!

Please celebrate with us! Our foodbank team are overjoyed today, because the Ash Villages Food Parcels Team has received news that The National Lottery Community Fund will be supporting us this year! Our recent application has just been approved. Pop over and give the National Lottery Community Fund a like on facebook please to show our appreciation, hurrah! Here’s the link: https://www.facebook.com/TNLCommunityFund

This means a lot. In all seriousness, this funding will help the foodbank to thrive, so we can keep going and keep supporting eveyone who needs us in Ash, Ash Vale, Ash Green and Tongham for many months to come. It also means that donations by local people can make an even bigger difference – every tin you send us is a tin we don’t have to use funding for, so the grant can stretch even further and feed even more families for longer. Our hard working and dedicated volunteers are amazing. They tirelessly pack and deliver parcels, clean fridges, collect and sort donations, take referrals and respond to emergencies, check the stock and tidy the shelves, they are super stars! And it is thanks to your generous giving and this National Lottery Community Funding that the shelves are full and we can be here, ready to help. Thank you!

Are you in need? No-one in our community ever needs to go to bed hungry, just contact CAB, social services, DWP, local churches, school or other agencies and you can be referred to us.

Thank you to The National Lottery Community Fund for their amazing support, it will make all the difference to our community. #foodbank #community #ashvillagesfoodparcelsteam

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A very big Foodbank thank you to Volker Fitzpatrick and J&J Palmer

Good news! This week, the Ash Villages Food Parcels Team are celebrating a lovely donation of items for the local community. Volker Fitzpatrick who have constructed our shiny new Chester Bridge and J&J Palmer who have done a lot of the ground works, sent us a huge shopping delivery of items to put in the food parcels over the coming weeks. The Foodbank team were delighted to meet Alex from Volker Fitzpatrick and we hope you like our celebration photo!

“This is an amazing donation and will go a long way, feeding lots of local families this month.” Said the foodbank Project Manager. ” We cannot thank you enough. We are always working hard to appeal for donations, and raise money to fill the shelves. Your support today makes all the difference. “

If you would like to support the Ash Villages Food Parcels Project you are always welcome to donate items at Ash Manor School, Co-op in Ash Vale, St Mary’s Church (Vale Rd), or The Chapel (Wharf Rd). You can also donate funds online so that we can buy our most urgently needed items in bulk. (How about becoming a regular giver and sending us £5 a month?) Thank you for your support!

Web: https://ash-vale.org.uk/foodparcels-2/

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

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Foodbank team celebrates 5 years! 

This week, we enjoyed a celebration tea party at the Chapel Peroject to celebrate 5 years of the Ash Villages Food Parcels Project. A lovely time was had by all, and thank you to everyone who baked, contributed, set up, served and cleared down. #TeamAwesome, as ever, much love to you all.

Who would have thought that a simple little Covid support project to help struggling families would become a fully fledged foodbank feeding 3331 people in 2024, and growing even more in 2025. Initially it was basic bread and veg – whatever we had donated – and over time we have fundraised and added more items, to make sure our food parcels give a good balance of nutritious items.

We have seen local needs growing and growing due to the cost of living, fuel crisis, cold winters, mental health crisis, unemployment, low incomes and rising rents. We cover Ash, Ash Vale, Ash Green and Tongham, and the population has grown here too, with over 2,000 more homes locally after all the new builds, so our local population has grown and some of our newest neighbours are in need too. We see you, we are here for you. We are proud to say that no-one in our community needs to go to bed hungry. If you have no food, and no money to buy any, call the church, the school, the GP, Citizens Advice, social worker, Guildford wellbeing team, or any other agency, and they can refer you to us asap for an emergency parcel. 

More need in the community,  means we need more help please! It’s hard to ask for donations when everyone is feeling the pinch… but here we are asking! The easiest way to make sure we have enough of each item on our shelves, is if our wonderful supporters donate funds so we can buy in bulk. If you would like to do this please consider a regular monthly donation, so we can budget carefully, and know that our community can always be fed. https://givealittle.co/c/7a47190c-ad4e-4cf9-8662-da844101a41c (donations link)

Another way to help is to donate the actual food and toiletries.  There are collecting points for tins and packets at Ash Manor School, Ash Vale Co-op, at St Mary’s Church on Vale Road (in the foyer whenever they are open), or at The Chapel (on Wharf Road) on Wednesdays and Fridays 8:30-9:30 while the team are packing parcels. (Or contact us to arrange a time to drop things off 07730609446). If you’d like to know what we need the most, we have an App for that! ‘Bank the food’ is brilliant.  https://www.bankthefood.org/

A huge thank you: We have had so many thank you messages from clients over the years it’s hard to choose the ones to share here. One couple cried with relief and gratitude – they had never needed help before and were so touched by the help they received. Another family said that we have helped them more than we will ever know. An elderly person was overjoyed to receive their parcel, and grateful that we were able to make a referral for other help from the warm hub toget her through the winter. One local mum was delighted to receive Christmas gifts for the children and then amazed to see that she had something for herself under the tree as well, her only present that year. Lots of people said a big thank you for the Easter eggs in their parcels last week, and we are always receiving lovely messages. Please know that every tin, every pack of pasta, every bag of laundry pods, or every pound you donate makes a real difference to a real family, right here in our community. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. 

We are grateful to everyone who donates, whether your donation is large or small, it makes a valuable difference. We also appreciate local stores and businesses, clubs and schools, churches and groups who support us with their kind donations too, which helps with an element of our parcels. Would you like to join them? Do get in touch. 

And finally a huge thank you to the superstar team of volunteers past and present who make it all possible!  They get up early to pack parcels, and stay up late to collect and sort donations. We have heroes that clean the fridges, dedicated delivery drivers, extra helpers at Christmas, champions who help raise funds, tireless helpers tidying, checking dates, taking phone calls, printing labels, making coffee, youth volunteers helping out, and all those many jobs that make it all work like a well oiled machine. We treasure each and every one of you! Thank you all.

A lovely 5 years of working together for good – here’s to many more! 

Alex, Carla, and Neil 

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Foodbank: 5 years Celebration Invitation

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