Last chance to help families in need with Wakefield Christmas Hamper Appeal

The appeal, supported by the Wakefield Express and organised by Chantry Rotary Club and CAP (Community Awareness Programme), helps many hundreds of families each year by providing a little festive cheer in the way of a Christmas hamper.

The needs of the community this year are as just as great as in the past and we want to be able to provide help to as many families in need as possible. So your help, whether as an individual or as a corporate sponsor is really appreciated. The appeal only works because of the generosity of Express readers like yourself.

In order to help as many families as possible, we have decided to put back the time frame by one week, so that we can accept donations of money, food or finished hampers up to Friday, November 25. We can then distribute the hampers during the week commencing November 28 to the Children First hubs, still giving us plenty of time to get them to families well before Christmas.

Kevin Dobson, the Manager at CAP, said: “We have had a wonderful response to the appeal again this year. We are always overwhelmed by the generosity. Every year we are contacted by life-long supporters and those who are new to us, and they come forward so willingly to help out. CAP has been running a Hamper Appeal for 11 years and it never fails to capture the imagination of the people of Wakefield. For the last six years we have partnered with Chantry Rotary Club and the Express to widen the reach of the distribution. Chantry have supported us both financially and in the logistics of the appeal and the Express has helped us to reach out to both sponsors and recipients alike.”

Donations of food or complete hampers should be taken to CAP in Market Street, Wakefield. If you would like to donate financially you can also do that at CAP as well.

A list of foods we need to make up a hamper and the contact details to ensure that the donations reach the right place are as follows:

All hampers should include the basics of tea or coffee, sugar, long life milk, breakfast cereal, chocolate biscuits, tinned potatoes or Smash, tinned vegetables (peas and/or carrots), stuffing, tinned fruit, Angel Delight, fruit juice, chocolate or sweets. Suggested extras can include tinned ham/corned beef, pasta, rice, meat paste, jam or marmalade, gravy mix, instant noodles, Cup-a-Soup, pasta in sauce, long life mince pies, long life Christmas pudding and Christmas crackers. Please remember - no fresh, chilled or frozen food and no alcohol.

You can contact CAP in Market Street Wakefield or give them a call and let them know you want to donate either food or funds to help pay for the food. Call Kevin Dobson, the Centre Manager at CAP on 01924 381119.

Please remember – we need all of the food or hampers to be with us by November 25.