Posted by The festive season can be particularly hard for people on a tight budget. This year, UK money bloggers have joined together to help make things a little easier by encouraging people to create a reverse advent calendar, filled with food.
Simply add a packet of non-perishable food to a box every day for 25 days, and donate your food parcel to your nearest food bank. For practical reasons, the organisers suggest starting early, to ensure food banks have provisions for people ahead of celebrations.
Find your local Trussell Food Bank here. This list gives an idea of what will be most welcome. Trussell recommend checking with your local foodbank, to see which items they are currently most in need of. You may also get inspiration from other bloggers’ parcels.
You may choose to add gifts, such as toiletries or sweet treats to create a more festive pack – and maybe seeds, to help people grow their own salad and other fruit and vegetables in the spring.
Apparently, food banks get 45% more referrals from CABs, job centres, GPs and social services during the two weeks before Christmas.
In addition to helping others, creating a reverse advent calendar can be a great way to teach children that Christmas is a time for giving – and encourage them to think about how they could help someone else.
If you create a reverse advent calendar box this year, share photos of it on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to encourage your friends to do the same using the hashtag #FoodbankAdvent. Share the love and help everyone have a festive time.
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