Christmas Food Appeal – Reverse Advent Calendar 2024

2024 has been a difficult year for people in Manchester, who are continuing to struggle due to the cost-of-living, inflation, and simply not having enough money to afford the essentials like food and toiletries.

At Manchester Central Foodbank, we have continued to help those in need by providing food parcels, a warm space and a friendly welcome, but as we head towards the festive season, we’re asking the Mancunian community to come together and help us in our efforts.

Since the start of this year, we’ve given out nearly 5,000 food parcels, helping over 14,000 people, but we’re anticipating this winter will be tougher again as some households are faced with a choice between heating and eating, many for the very first time.

We’re asking the community to take part in our annual Reverse Advent Calendar campaign as part of our Christmas Food Appeal. Last year, the campaign was such a success and over 70 companies, individuals and community groups took part, collecting enough donations to stock our foodbank for the festive season, as well as the whole month of January!

We’d like to invite people to get involved in your office, place of worship, clubs/societies, or anything else you’ll be getting involved in during the run-up to Christmas.

Our food appeal
The idea behind the Reverse Advent Calendar is to donate an item each day, from a selection of tinned food and goods, toiletries, and some treats like chocolate. All these items will go to make up a food parcel for someone in need this winter.

Click here to download our Reverse Advent Calendar poster and find out what we’re asking for each day!

Our campaign is running from Monday 4 November – Sunday 1 December, and you can follow along on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, making sure to tag us to show us how you’re getting on!

If you can’t organise a physical collection, then you can donate through our online Give Today platform, either by donating individual items, or the Advent Bundle (priced at £1.35 / item).

Your Give Today donation will be delivered directly to our foodbank via supermarket delivery.

We can accept any food as long as it doesn’t need to be stored in a fridge/freezer, is unopened and in-date, and doesn’t contain any alcohol.

Dropping off your donations
We’re asking for donations to be dropped off from Monday 2 December, to the Apex Self-Storage unit on Devonshire Street North, Ardwick, M12 6JQ. This will give us plenty of time to sort donations and get them out to those in need over the festive period.

We may be able to offer some collections for large donations (over 5 bags for life). Please contact our Warehouse & Logistics Coordinator Rob Matheson on [email protected] to arrange a potential collection.

Thank you for supporting Mancunians in need this Christmas!

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