Citygate Church appeal delivers 200 hampers to people in need

Volunteers at Citygate Church, in partnership with Bournemouth Foodbank and more than 60 other local organisations, delivered the 200 hampers as a part of the Christmas Hamper Appeal on December 23.

The hampers contained everything from meat and dried pasta to a Christmas pudding, chocolates and a £10 Smyth’s toy shop voucher.

Ed Briggs, the hamper team leader, said that it takes months of work from volunteers to make sure every receives a hamper who may need one.

“We start inviting partners to join in in September. Our partners can choose whether they want to nominate families, so that’s suitable for a lot of agencies, charities, or other churches, they can pledge food, or they can recruit volunteers,” he said.

“Teams of hamper packers, teams on site here helping support the deliveries and the delivery drivers themselves are all volunteers.”

Bournemouth Mayor, Bob Lawton, said the whole hamper appeal was fantastic to see.

“It’s wonderful to see the charity sector, it’s wonderful to see volunteers going out of their way to help people,” he said.

“I can’t highly commend the people who run this operation enough.”

Volunteer Asha Mainwaring has helped out with the administration of the hampers and helped to coordinate the delivery drivers on the day, ensuring that each parcel reaches its destination.

“I think the greatest thing is sharing the joy of Christmas with people,” she said.

“There’s something about knowing that we’ve done this and been able to pass that on to them so they can eat on Christmas.”

Delivery drivers Jamie and Cathy Turner have been volunteering for five years on the hamper appeal. They said everyone is very grateful when they receive the food and supplies.

“People are appreciative. The first person today had three children, so the kids were lovely, they said thank you and merry Christmas,” Jamie said.

Paul Dashwood said that he started volunteering as a part of a work initiative six years ago but has come back every year with colleagues despite leaving the company he worked at.

“I think we’ve all left but we’re all still doing this,” he said.

“The team gets bigger and bigger; we’re helping out creating the hampers as well as just delivering them.”

“It’s something nice at this time of year.”