Foodbank Christmas collection - can you help?

We're planning a council-wide staff collection for East Lothian Foodbank this Christmas - can you help? 

Why are we doing this?

East Lothian Foodbank provides emergency food and practical support to people across our area who are experiencing pressures.

The charity received £500 through our supplier Community Benefit funding after colleagues voted for it while responding to the employee survey and will receive money raised through November's Quizmas event. We're building on that work and the goodwill that exists for the East Lothian Foodbank. 

We know that many teams look for causes to support at Christmas and some organise their own Foodbank collections. By harnessing our collective resources, we hope to make a significant donation to the Foodbank that will help their work supporting people in our communities. 

How will it work?

We're in touch with the East Lothian Foodbank ahead of their Christmas reverse advent calendar campaign. As in previous years, their team will create a poster of items they'd value receiving in December for their work ahead of Christmas and into January. This ranges from household staples like tea and coffee, cereal, pasta and tinned meat or vegetables to toiletries and Christmas chocolate. People can donate as many items as they want either individually or coordinating with others.  

A network of collection stations across our council locations will make it easy for colleagues to drop-off food items.

Posters with QR codes will tell you what these items are and give an option to donate money if you'd prefer. 

The donation window will run from 23 November to 5 December.

Can you help? 

• we'd like to have a donation point in every office or staff location. Could you be a coordinator in your building? 
• would you be willing to transport donations from your location to a central pick-up point or to the foodbank? 
• could you display a poster in your workplace? 

We'd love to have as many people as possible on board - either with practical arrangements or to donate an item or two (or more!) when the collection window opens.

Look out for further details in next month's Inform and on the intranet. 

Contact details

To offer your help please contact inform@eastlothian.gov.uk