A LOCAL social housing company has donated boxes full of food and other items to several North Wales foodbanks in its 'Reverse Advent' scheme.
ClwydAlyn Housing's Reverse Advent Calendar sees staff members and residents in supported living facilities donate an item each day throughout November ready to deliver to a local food bank in early December.
This means food banks will have time to make up food parcels and distribute the contents before Christmas.
This year's scheme has been a huge success, with enough items collected to benefit nine North Wales foodbanks.
The Leader has recently reported that demand on local foodbanks has skyrocketed amid the effects of the pandemic - meaning ClwydAlyn's initiative is needed now more than ever.
The company collected the items at each of its supported living facilities in North Wales, and to allow staff that have been working from home the chance to donate, the company set up a PayPal donation page - which raised over £70.
Employees Louise Smith-Aldous and Lisa Dodd did a big shop of all the items the Flintshire foodbank said it urgently needed; including tinned potatoes, tinned rice pudding, tinned/packet custard, toothpaste and soap as well at lots of Christmas chocolate treats and other bits.
Each of the supported living facilities has now donated its collected items to its local foodbank.
A full breakdown of the donations is as follows:
Llys Eleanor – Shotton
Donated to : Aston Family Centre, Shotton
Delivered by Carl Taylor and Louise Smith-Aldous
All donated from residents and staff at Llys Eleanor – 5 boxes and 4 bags
Llys Raddington – Flint
Donated to Age Connect, Flint
Donated by: Julie Jones – 3 boxes and 1 bag
Maes y Dderwen – Wrexham
Donated to Bradley Road Baptist Church, Wrexham
Delivered by Neil Winstanley – 5 boxes
Clwyd Alyn has also thanked Harveys Solicitors in Flint which donated Christmas funds for the food bank collection.
Gorwel Newydd – Rhyl
Donated to: Kimnel Bay Church
Delivered by Paul Bodell – 1 large box
Hafan Cefni – Anglesey
Donated to Elim Church, Holyhead
Donated by Neil Lynch
All donated by tenants and Hafan Cefni staff – 1 trolley full and 4 bags
Tan y Fron - Llandudno
Donated to Ty Hapus, Llandudno
Donated by Laura McKibbin – 2 boxes
Venue 72 – St Asaph
Donated to Itaca Community Hub, Abergele
Donated by Hannah Hughes and Gemma Kavanagh – a whole car boot full.
Penrhos Polish Village - Pwllheli
Donated to Banc Bwyd Pwllheli Foodbank
Donated by Michal Drewenski – 2 boxes
Online PayPal Donations - donated to St David’s Church Hall, Mold
Louise Smith Aldous, operational projects and health and safety coordinator at ClwydAlyn, was one of the chief organisers of the scheme.
She said: "I’m really proud of all the staff and residents donating to such an important cause, particularly with how difficult and expensive Christmas can be for families but even more so now so many are facing financial hardship and I’m so glad we have been able to help.
"A lot of our donations have come from residents in our extra care schemes that means a lot and I hope they are really proud for supporting this
"We have easily doubled our total donations from last year and we intend on collecting again in the New Year.
"I’m really grateful for all the help I have had in coordinating and delivering all the donations too. I had a lot of support from our staff - it’s been fantastic."
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