SUMMER FUNDRAISER 2020 – for Peterborough foodbank and St Mary’s Church
Every year at St Mary’s we hold a Summer Fundraising campaign to raise money for a local charity. Half of the money raised goes to a chosen charity which, this year, was the Peterborough foodbank, and half to St Mary’s to help fund improvements to benefit the individuals, groups and communities that use our church and centre.
Our Fundraiser culminated on the 11th October. Huge thanks to everyone who donated – those at St Mary’s, those in the local community, and those further afield. And Thank you to all who have helped, supported and encouraged. Thanks to your generosity, we raised £3000, and were delighted to present a cheque on Sunday 11th October to Alan Gage for the Peterborough foodbank for £1683.
Based on the calculations they use from the Trussell Trust, where an average cost for 1 kilo of food is £1.65, and an average meal weighs 440 grams, this means our donation of £1683 equals 1020 Kg (just over a tonne), and will enable approximately 2300 meals.
St Marys’ folk are usually busy over the summer holding lots of different events, activities and sponsorships in order to raise money. Obviously it was different this year because of the Covid-19 restrictions so we all had to think of different ideas. Here’s some of the things we got up to:
- Rev Michael, in a mad moment, decided to do an epic bike ride, on his exercise bike, from Peterborough to Land’s End (374 miles). He still hasn’t completely recovered!
- Helen and Andrew B rowed across the channel to France and back (68 km {42.2 miles}) in their rowing machine. In each hour of rowing they covered about 10,000m. Each oar-stroke covered about 5m. The whole distance there and back was 68,000m. This was approximately 13,600 oar-strokes. Every 10m rowed burned about 1 calorie (although it felt like a lot more!)
- Angela was busy making delicious jams (Apple and BlackBerry, Rhubarb and Ginger, Apple and Damson, and Gooseberry).ðŸ“
- Andrew C was making bread, and kindly delivering bread and jam.
- Diana was been creative with sloes.
- Vic did a sponsored walk.
You can see from the figures above that your generosity will make a huge difference to those who are struggling in Peterborough so, Thank you so much for your generosity.
Thank you to Sheila who is a great ambassador for the foodbank, keeping us up to date with news and with what is most needed, and delivering produce to the foodbank warehouse. She has restarted those deliveries so, if you are coming to church on Sundays and wish to donate items, please put them in the wheelbarrow. Thank you.
The Peterborough foodbank would like more volunteers - If you would like to volunteer, please go to: https://peterborough.foodbank.org.uk/give-help/volunteer/
Peterborough foodbank is a project founded by local churches and community groups, working together towards stopping hunger in our local area.
The need for a foodbank within Peterborough was identified back in 2012 during a Tackling Poverty workshop. At that time 1 in 4 children in Peterborough were identified as living in poverty. As a result Peterborough foodbank opened in October 2012 to help address this issue.
They first opened with three foodbank centres – Dogsthorpe, Westgate and Stanground. They quickly grew to 9 centres as they wanted to make sure people were able to access their services near where they lived.
Their aim is to show God’s love in action for those that are struggling or in poverty. Not only do they provide food parcels, but offer signposting and a listening ear. They hope to be able to develop to offer more services that their clients need to help lift them out of their crisis.
Their project is inclusive and is open to clients and volunteers of all backgrounds, faith and nationality.
They don’t think anyone in our community should have to face going hungry. That is why they provide three days of nutritionally balanced emergency food and support to local people who are referred to them in crisis. They are part of a nationwide network of foodbanks, supported by The Trussell Trust, working to combat poverty and hunger across the UK.
One user said: “The foodbank was there when we really needed it, it was an absolute lifeline.”
Donations to the Summer Fundraiser is now closed, until a new Charity partner is selected next year. All donantions will now resume as normal and any money donated will go to St Mary's Church. Further details on how you can give to St Mary's can be found on the 'Donating to St Mary's' page