Horsham Matters End of Year Round-Up
Today at Horsham Matters we took our staff Christmas photo to say thank you to everyone who has supported us, and are looking back on 2020. It’s been a challenging year in which we have faced the challenges of our charity shop shut twice in lockdown, not making income for our work, and at the same time staff and volunteers have been working tirelessly to provide food support for people in need through Horsham District Foodbank.
First lockdown brought about the closure of all 5 live foodbank sessions and a move to a doorstep delivery system for emergency food parcels. Between mid-March and mid-November the Foodbank fed over 7,000 children and adults, which compares to the whole of the previous financial year in which we fed 2,900 in 12 months. This area has a high employment rate so many people locally have been impacted by furlough and job losses and we are supporting people who have never used a Foodbank before.
The pandemic has also impacted children in a big way and via schools’ referrals, this year in the summer school holidays and October half-term holidays we delivered 75 family Foodbank parcels every week, and will be delivering 300 family Christmas Foodbank parcels during the week commencing 14 December. Last Christmas this number was 35. The Christmas Food parcels consist of one large box of food and one large box of Christmas treats and presents.
**We are very short of new gifts for teenagers and would gratefully accept donations of those at our donation centre at Micah House, and the deadline for receipt is 7 December**
Horsham Matters was delighted to reopen their Charity Shop in Redkiln Close on 2 December and it was a very busy day. The shop is now open Monday to Saturday 10am-5pm with the last day open before Christmas as 23 December and it will reopen on 29 December, with normal hours and on 30 December it will be open for reduced hours of 9am-2pm.
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Our donation centre in Blatchford re-opens Saturday 5 December for donations of furniture and household goods, between 9.30am-11am. It will then be open on Tuesdays and Saturdays at that time until Saturday 19 December, which will be the last session of the year.
Food donations are now brought to the shop between 10am-4pm where there is a basket inside the door for small donations and access down the back of the shop for larger donations. The Foodbank is always staffed by volunteers to receive your donation.
And finally, if you know anyone who is experiencing food poverty, please ask them to call 0300 124 0204 to ask about receiving a food package, Horsham District Foodbank is here to help.