Reading Festival donations boost Salvation Army parcels
Thanks to those that donated their spare food at the festival this year!
Salvation Army members – with lots of help from their friends – were packing 800 Christmas food parcels for needy people in the borough. One of the main sources of the food for the gifts came from the Reading Festival.An appeal went out at the end of the festival to the crowd to hand in all their unused cans, bottles and packets and the collection netted 200 kilos of food for the parcels. The individuals and families who will receive the hampers have been identified by social services in Reading.
Over the last two years of recession, the request for parcels for the needy has grown from 500 to 800 this year.
Stuart Scott of the Salvation Army said the food hampers were now an established feature every Christmas and the church was “more than happy to meet the challenge”.
Volunteers helped to pack the hampers at the Salvation Army Citadel in Anstey Road, Central Reading. Among the volunteers helping out were staff from Festival Republic, Blandy & Blandy and the Reading branch of Wrigley, the chewing gum giant.
Children from Westwood Farm Primary School in Tilehurst were also doing their bit.
Melvin Benn, of Festival Republic, said: “I’d like to thank all Reading Festival-goers and the Salvation Army staff for their efforts which resulted in the collection of approximately 200 kilos of packets, bottles, tins and cartons of food which will be put to use in around 800 Christmas food parcels distributed to those in need in the local area.
“A team of Festival Republic volunteers will be helping to pack the parcels and it’s wonderful to see these unwanted items be put to such good use.”
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