#FoodBankAdvent – Do Good This Christmas
In 2017, UK Money Bloggers started the hugely successful #FoodBankAdvent campaign. This Christmas we’ll be running the campaign again and we want you to get involved! If you’re looking for ways that you can do good and spread the Christmas cheer, this is the campaign for you!
In this post I share with you what the #FoodBankAdvent campaign is all about, how you can get involved, and some top tips for effortlessly boosting your donation efforts.
What is a #FoodBankAdvent?
Starting on 1st December, families across the UK will be opening a new door on their advent calendars, and enjoying a daily treat in the lead up to Christmas.
However, the #FoodBankAdvent is a Reverse Advent Calendar. So instead of (or as well as) you getting a little treat on each day of advent, you’ll give a treat everyday throughout the month (November is preferable to get your donation in before Christmas).
The idea of a Reverse Advent Calendar is to support your local foodbank as they prepare for the huge spikes in demand during the winter months. You can support the campaign by collecting an item a day and putting them all together to donate to your local foodbank at the beginning of December.
What you can donate?
Before you start to collect donations, please do have a read of The Trussell’s Trust’s ‘what goes in a food bank parcel’ to see the sorts of things that are most useful. Here are some of the items most useful:
- Tinned or dried foods
- Cereals
- Pasta or rice
- UHT milk
- Biscuits
- Tea or coffee
If you look on your local food bank’s website there may have a list of what they most need. As well as donating food, toiletries (especially feminine hygiene products) are also often desperately needed.
Join the Campaign
We have started our #FoodbankAdvent Calendar already but it’s never too late to join! If you’re taking part in the reverse advent calendar campaign this year please do upload a photo of your donations on Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter, using #FoodbankAdvent to encourage more people to get involved.
We’re hoping to make this campaign bigger and better than last year so it’d be great to get friends and family involved and promote it wherever possible. Could you get your colleagues involved? You could also encourage your local stores to make their own reverse advent calendar.
An easy way to boost your donation efforts is to collect one tin of food every time you do a shop. Things like tins of beans, pasta and noodles make great foodbank additions and are all relatively cheap.
I’d love to see your progress. Please feel free to tag me in your donation posts on Instagram or Twitter @beemoneysavvy.
Freebies to add to your Reverse Advent Calendar
Want to take part in the reverse advent calendar but worried about how much you can afford to donate? We’ve got you covered! There are dozens of freebies that you can collect to donate as part of your #FoodbankAdvent. I’ll be sharing new freebies on my social media channels throughout December.
Join Emma’s Diary and download the Bounty App (iOS and Android) for free baby wipes and nappies.
Download Shopmium, CheckoutSmart & Green Jinn – these apps (available on iOS and Android) offer lots of free food and drink throughout the year and even more so in the run up to Christmas.
EasyFundraising works like a cashback website. You earn a small commission on any purchases you make online. Sign up to EasyFundraising and select your preferred charity to raise funds for them every time you shop online
Free food, drink, toiletries and more!
How to donate your reverse advent calendar
Many supermarkets have an area for you to drop off #FoodbankAdvent donations, and this can often be the easiest way to deliver your collection. Here are some of the foodbank donation initiatives that each supermarket are running too:
- Tesco generously top up its customers’ food donations with a financial donation of 20% of the value of the items donated. You can also convert Clubcard vouchers to a donation to the Trussell Trust.
- Morrisons has launched pre-packed food parcels that shoppers can pick up and donate at the till.
- Waitrose to set up permanent foodbank donation points in all its supermarkets and you can add a green token at the checkout (both online and in-store).
You can also search the Trussell Trust website to find your local foodbank, which might have more details about how to give food or money.
Reverse advent calendars will not solve the wider issue of the number of people living in poverty in Britain. But it does give us a chance to do our own little bit to make sure one less person goes hungry this festive season. Start collecting for your own #FoodBankAdvent this year!
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