This year our Advent Charity focus was our local Food Bank Appeal. We would like to say a huge thank you to all who donated. Our target was to fill 5 shopping trolleys full of donations. Year 7s donated at their parents’ evening with over 80 advent calendars and numerous food items collected and alongside the donations from all other year groups we are pleased to say that we exceeded this!
St. Mary's Church and Community Food Bank was the first Food Bank to be opened in Tameside. Staffed entirely by volunteers, we offer food parcels to families and individuals throughout Tameside who find themselves in crisis, through a referral system. All food is donated by the wonderful Tameside public and churches.
Members of our College Council met with representatives from the Food Bank to discuss the work they do. They were shocked by how many families in our area need assistance from the Food Bank. They also visited the Food Bank to witness the fantastic work they do for our community. The pupils got the chance to help wrap some Christmas presents.
Helen Holland recently got in touch with the following statistics from this Christmas’s appeal,
“180 families were referred to us (131 last year). This consisted of over 800 people - 667 being children and young people.
Each family received enough staple food to last them for over the Christmas week, they each received Christmas Dinner consisting of soup, chicken roast dinner with all the trimmings, pudding, crackers and lots of Christmas treats and each child received at least 3 presents each from us.
None of this would have happened without the kindness and generosity of our community, and you, the pupils and their families were a big part of this massive community operation. So please thank everybody for how they helped others this year. They are amazing.
We look forward to working together again - your students are a credit to the school and it was great to meet them!”
