Tag: Christmas

Christmas Foodbank Donations Guidance

This is a time of year where many individuals, community groups, educational institutions and workplaces organise donation drives for Foodbanks. It’s fantastic that so many people want to lend support.

To help focus donations on what would be most effective, Feeding Liverpool have consulted with some of the largest Foodbanks in our network.

What we’ve heard is that whilst festive treats are great at this time of year, please keep donating the staples. High demand during winter means we need these donations to keep foodbank cupboards stocked with all the essentials.

Please donate:

  • Rice
  • Pasta
  • UHT Milk
  • Tinned Tomatoes
  • Tinned/Instant Soups
  • Noodles
  • Jam
  • Tinned Meat/Fish
  • Tinned rice pudding
  • Instant Coffee
  • Shampoo

You can download a shareable social media graphic here.

Print off our guidance and put it up at your local donation point here.

Liverpool Christmas Support Page 2023

Here is a list of useful Liverpool-based Christmas Food Support services and resources for the Christmas and New Year period.

Community Christmas Meals

The below organisations are providing free Christmas meals on Christmas Day.

The Hope Foundation will be running a Christmas Day meal from 11.30am until 4pm at the Frontline Centre, 147 Lawrence Road, L15 3HA. To get in touch with them regarding the meal, please email [email protected].

Bay Tree Catering will be running a Community Christmas Dinner on Christmas Day 25th December from 10am – 2pm. This will be at Vauxhall Community Centre, Silvester Street, Liverpool L5 8SE. To book a place, please go through local community organisations.

Squash Liverpool are open on Christmas Day from 12 – 3pm for drop ins. There will be tasty free food available throughout. To get in touch, visit their website or please email Clare Owens [email protected]

If you’re hosting a Christmas meal in the run up to Christmas or on Christmas and you’d like us to publicise it, please email [email protected]

Emergency Food Providers

Please check this spreadsheet to confirm the opening and closing times of Emergency Food Providers over the Christmas period.

Emergency Food spreadsheet, click here.

North Liverpool Foodbank Network

Opening days and times for North Liverpool Foodbanks can be found here.

Details about each foodbank location can be found here.

You will need to go through the usual support agencies to obtain a voucher or voucher code, these include Citizens Advice Liverpool, your GP, health visitor, or social worker.

If the support agency is closed then staff from St Andrew’s Community Network will be picking up answer phone messages on a rota and will be able to issue e-voucher codes over the phone. Please call 0151 226 3406 and leave your name and contact number for the team.

South Liverpool Foodbank

Details about each foodbank location can be found here.

Opening days and times for South Liverpool Foodbanks can be found on this spreadsheet. Please click here.

Micah Liverpool

Micah Liverpool foodbank is open on Thursday 28th December at St Bride’s Church, Percy St, L8 7LT from 10.30am – 12.30pm. There is no referral needed and no voucher needed, you just turn up.

The community markets have been cancelled on the following dates this year – Wednesday 20th December, Friday 22nd December, Wednesday 27th December and Friday 29th December. Their normal foodbank on Tuesday will not be open on Tuesday 26th December.

They are back as usual from Tuesday 2nd January.

To get in touch, please call 0151 702 7206.

Gold House: Hope for All

Gold House: Hope for All is open on Thursday 28th December from 12pm – 1.30pm. To get in touch please contact Pastor Patricia on 07576 993392.

New Beginnings Improving Lives CIC (Filling the Gap Foodbank)

New Beginnings Improving Lives foodbank is open on Thursday 28th December for collections and deliveries to provide to those in an emergency crisis.

The normal ‘referral-only’ criteria will be relaxed and contact can be made directly. This service is for families and individuals in a crisis with no food or financial means to purchase food.

Please contact Michelle Roach on [email protected].

The Whitechapel Centre

The Whitechapel Centre will be open between Wednesday 27th December and Friday 29th December from 9am until 4pm.

To get in touch with the centre, please call 0151 207 8639.

Liverpool Zero Waste CIC Surplus Food Open Events

Liverpool Zero Waste CIC collect surplus food to save it from landfill and distribute it to communities. Over Christmas and New Year they will be running a number of open events giving out surplus food from over 50 supermarkets to be collected.

They will be operating two open food events everyday from Sunday 24th December until Saturday 6th January at All Souls Church, Mather Avenue, Allerton, Liverpool, L19 4TF and at Church of Holy Spirit on East Prescot Road/Dovecot Avenue, Dovecot, L14 2EH.

Please bring big bags – They are expecting large volumes of surplus food that will need saving.

For specific timings, please follow Liverpool Zero Waste CIC on Facebook and Twitter.

To find out more information about Emergency Food Providers over Christmas, please click on this spreadsheet. 

Community Food Spaces

Our Community Food Space Map is an interactive resource that shows community food spaces in Liverpool city. Before visiting a community food space, please check this spreadsheet for Christmas opening hours.

To view the spreadsheet, click here.

To view our Community Food Space map, click here.

The Queen of Greens

The Queen of Greens is a mobile greengrocer that stops at various locations across Liverpool and Knowsley. The Queen of Greens will be closed from the last stop on Friday 22nd December until Tuesday 2nd January.

To view our Queen of Greens map, click here.

Haven’t filled in our survey about your opening hours? Please fill in the survey here if you operate one food space, and here if you operate more than one food space.

Agencies and other support

Winter Holiday Activities and Food Programme – the Winter HAF programme starts on the 27th December and there are lots of great things happening over the school holidays. Children and young people, from reception to age 16 (including year 11 leavers), who are eligible for benefits related free school meals, will be able to access hundreds of activities through the half – term holidays including specific provision available for children with SEND or additional needs, at no cost. There’s a great range of activities available across the city and every day there wil be a range of meals available. To find out where the nearest scheme is, click on this link or go on to the Mersey Play website for more information.

Help in a crisis – Liverpool City Council have provided some sources of support that could help you or someone you know.

Crisis Merseyside are open for a half day on Christmas Eve and then they are open on 27/28/29 December. They reopen as normal on Tuesday 2nd January.

Find your local councillor using this tool.

LCVS has compiled a list of resources for individuals affected by the Cost of Living Crisis. This includes useful services and resources for the winter period, e.g. Warm Hubs. Visit the LCVS website here for information regarding:

Warm Hubs:

To find a Warm Welcome Space, click this link.

  • Winter Warm Welcome Days Warm Hub – drop in every Thursday from 10am to 4pm at Kensington Fields Community Centre until Thursday 21st December
  • The Life Rooms Warm Hubs (Walton, Belle Vale – Lee Valley, Bootle & Southport)
  • Warm Welcome Hub at The Brain Charity
  • Liverpool Carers Centre Warm Bank Community Living Room – every Monday from 12:30 – 2pm at 99 Edge Lane, Liverpool, L7 2PE
  • A Place of Welcome – APLACE2B Croxteth Warm Hub – every Thursday from 11:30am – 2:30pm with a free lunch at St Cuthbert’s Croxteth Park
  • Warm and Cosy with the Archdiocese of Liverpool in various locations (see LCVS website for more information)

Liverpool-based Resources & Services:

General Resources:

Feeding Liverpool’s Christmas Appeal

This Christmas, we are asking residents and businesses to join together to support Feeding Liverpool’s Christmas Appeal to aid the work of Feeding Liverpool and our 70 member charities that provide emergency and community food support in the region as we work towards #GoodFoodForAll.  

Over 132,000 people in Merseyside are having to access emergency food to feed themselves and their family – if they were to all hold hands, the line would stretch from Liverpool all the way to Birmingham.

We are asking those who are out celebrating Christmas with work colleagues and friends in bars or restaurants to give whatever they can afford via our Just Giving page to help us continue our work this winter and beyond.

Food poverty is not just a challenge for the most deprived households: with increasing taxes, rents, mortgages, food prices and energy, many households previously regarded as “comfortably off” are finding themselves needing the support of food banks and similar community projects. It is estimated that as many as 3,000 National Health Workers will be amongst those hoping for support to feed their families. 

Feeding Liverpool Director, Naomi Maynard, said:

Food charities in the region are at crisis point; they are experiencing unparalleled levels of need – over 2,100 emergency food parcels in Liverpool are being distributed every week to people in need – at a time when food supply is dwindling. The most effective way to provide the ongoing support needed is through a financial donation. We urge the people of Liverpool out in local bars and restaurants celebrating Christmas to think about the 132,000 in their community who are struggling to put food on the table, let alone celebrate Christmas. 

 

This is a huge number of people in our community who need support; 132,000 individuals is equivalent to a line of people holding hands from Liverpool to Birmingham (roughly 100 miles). Your support this Christmas will enable us to continue ensuring those in our community who are in crisis can put good food on the table this winter and beyond. 

 

In our region, we have some of the most deprived communities in England, but also some of the wealthiest. In truth, the Liverpool region has the widest gap between rich and poor of anywhere in England. It is certainly within the gift of the Liverpool community to start to address this challenge.

How you can support the appeal:

  • Make a donation to our Christmas Appeal which will run the length of the Christmas and New Year party season. Individuals can donate through the Just Giving page. For organisations and businesses who would like to donate, you can donate through our Just Giving page or alternatively contact our Office and Finance Administrator, Gentian Khan, on [email protected] for other ways to make a donation.
  • Share our Christmas appeal with your friends, colleagues and networks by downloading this poster and display it at your place of work or share your support through use our social media assets (download this individual social media asset or this business / organisation social media asset)
  • Fundraise for our Christmas Appeal through a targeted fundraising event during your organization’s Christmas celebrations, such as a raffle or promises auction during a Christmas Party
  • Add a donation onto a specific product you sell, if applicable, following Hawksmoor Liverpool who are donating 50p to Feeding Liverpool from every sale of mince pies during the festive season.

Feeding Liverpool’s mission has already garnered the support of local businesses that share its goal of tackling food poverty. Matalan, leading fashion and homeware omni-channel value retailer, based in the North West, is rallying it’s colleagues to dig deep and donate what they can to support the charity and their local community. Matalan will match all donations made by colleagues whilst also donating all proceeds from its annual Christmas raffle to the cause.

Local restaurant, Hawksmoor Liverpool will once again support Feeding Liverpool through their mince pie fundraiser giving 50p to the charity for every mince pie sold in the restaurant, building on their successful partnership throughout 2023.

Matalan CEO Jo Whitfield said:

Food is such a big part of Christmas, but the reality is that many families will struggle to put food on the table this year due to the rising cost of living challenges. As a business that has called Liverpool its home for more than 30 years, we are proud to be supporting Feeding Liverpool to help more families have access to good food and the joy that brings.

 

Thanks to generous Matalan colleagues across the UK who are supporting the cause, and with all proceeds from our annual festive raffle being donated, we are able to support 2000 families this Christmas. At Matalan, we live by our values, and ‘think family’ couldn’t be more fitting right now. I ask those that can, to donate – however big or small. It will make a huge difference to struggling families this Christmas.

Hawksmoor Business Development Manager, Emma Hocknell said:

We have been supporting Feeding Liverpool since Hawksmoor Liverpool’s opening in November 2022. Our customers and staff often enquire about the charities that we support and how they can get involved. Making an affordable donation to Feeding Liverpool over the Christmas and New Year party season is a great way to support those who are most challenged by the cost of living crisis.

 

We hope that all Bars and Restaurants in Merseyside follow suit so those that are most able to help can make a big difference to our wider community.

 

Click here to make a donation to Feeding Liverpool’s Christmas Appeal