'˜Tis the season to be generous

The initiative, which is sponsored by the Wakefield Express and organised by the Rotary Club of Wakefield Chantry and the Community Awareness Programme (CAP), is aiming to hand out 1,000 food hampers to underprivileged families across the district.

Minster Law, which sponsored the hamper packaging last year, has asked staff in its Wakefield office to donate food and cash, with the aim of collecting and packing up to 100 hampers.

Amanda Parkinson, project manager at the firm, said: “We are proud to be supporting the CAP Christmas campaign again this year as part of our corporate social responsibility programme. We are keen to give back and help those in need in our local communities. We aim to improve lives through charitable giving and support those who need our help the most. CAP does such amazing work in providing care and much needed support for those who are vulnerable and by creating food and gift hampers through donations from our colleagues, we hope to help them to reach more people than ever before this Christmas.”

Minster Law is just one part of the growing response we have had from Express readers who are committing their help and support for the festive scheme.

There’s still plenty of time to donate food, money or finished hampers to the CAP centre on Market Street, Wakefield. The deadline is Friday, December 1 so that the hampers can be prepared for delivery to the Children First Hubs in Wakefield, Castleford, Hemsworth and Normanton. The hampers will then be given to families in need of support who otherwise might not be in a position to celebrate the festive season as most of us are able to do.

The hampers can contain almost any dried foods, in particular tea or coffee, cereals, tinned vegetables and fruit, stuffing and gravy mix, as well as long life items such as UHT milk and fruit juice. We also need jam and marmalade, pasta and rice, meat pastes and tinned meat, as well as biscuits and other Christmas themed foods and confectionary. Please do not include either fresh items or alcohol.

For more information, call Kevin Dobson on 01924 381119.