Foodshare community donations fill 130 bags of Christmas food for those in need

Joint community efforts have helped make sure those most in need get to have a ‘special’ Christmas – with a bit of luxury for those who wouldn’t ordinarily have it.

On December 8, The Advertiser ran a front page featuring Maidenhead Foodshare calling for urgent donations to fill its Christmas bags for those using the foodbank service.

At the time, Foodshare was struggling to fill 10 bags – out of an aim of closer to 150.

The appeal did ‘incredibly well’ and now Foodshare can ‘easily’ fill 140 bags, said trustee Debbie Gee.

“Everybody saw the front of the paper and it made a huge difference to our donations,” she said.

“It’s staggering – we’ve been so specific this year but everyone’s managed to rally round.”

Foodshare has seen people rustling up donations for their street all over Maidenhead; from Cox Green, Woodlands Park, Pinkneys Green and beyond. Churches have also been chipping in.

“People are coming together as a smaller community to support Foodshare. There's a big community feel about this year,” said Debbie.

Though it is still not quite enough food – the bags are not as full as the foodbank would like – at least they will be special, Debbie added.

With that aim in mind, Foodshare has bought meat from Cowdery's of Cookham butchers – with the help of a significant financial donation from a group of churches.

“It’s good quality meat, a taste of luxury to make it a little bit more special this year,” said Debbie.

She added that those using the foodbank would rarely get an opportunity to enjoy meat like this.

“They've probably not had anything like this for a very long time, if at all,” she said.

“People didn’t know how they were going to put a Christmas dinner on the table this year – they weren’t even thinking about the luxuries.

“It’s about giving them the opportunity to have a wonderful Christmas, a wonderful meal.”

Foodshare’s close connection with Cowdery’s goes on throughout the year, with the small business frequently supporting them with donations.

“Rather than go and give [money] to a big chain supermarket, we felt [we should] support a community shop that always supports us and does a lot in the community,” said Debbie.

Much of the meat came at cost price, ie no labour charge.

“I think the food will give people a lift this year. [Cowdery’s] really put a lot of thought into preparing it all,” said Debbie.

Foodshare hopes that this will also help buoy up Cowdery’s as well, knowing it is struggling because of the Cookham Bridge closure.Owner and manager Ged Cowdery said it has been a difficult time.

“Cookham Bridge being shut has cost us a lot of our trade and we lost a huge amount of our customers after COVID – they got out of the habit of coming,” he said.

“We thought, if we’re struggling, there’s a lot more people out there struggling, too.”

The final piece of the puzzle is the money used to buy the meat, which came from a collaboration of churches.

Rev David Short of St Peter’s Church, Maidenhead, is involved with a group of churches taking part in the Love Your
Neighbour national initiative.

This scheme works through a network of 88 hubs to ensure the needs of the most vulnerable are met ‘through local neighbourly activity.’

Rev Short explained that after a big Christmas charitable project of its own, their branch of Love Your Neighbour had £750 left over it wanted to spend on a good community cause.

“We picked up from the Advertiser that Foodshare were really struggling for donations,” he said.

“We’ve long been supporters of Foodshare – we recognise the great work they do. We’re all really on the same team, trying our best to identify those most in need in our community.”

This £750-worth of meat has gone some way to making sure that Christmas is just that bit more special for people struggling in the cost-of-living crisis.