The Big Xmas Give
This winter, the Chaplaincy is running a bit of friendly competition in order to help a local foodback in their drive to help the Lancaster Community. As in previous years, from the 1st to 16th December, the Chaplaincy will be taking food donations for The Olive Branch foodbank in Lancaster on behalf of Lancaster University. However, this year all donations will be logged to the department which gave them and the department which donates the most per head, including staff and students, will receive a special token of thanks, delivered personally by members of the Chaplaincy Centre, to display in their department… until next year!
Revd Craig Abbott, Interim Anglican Chaplain explains: “We wanted to introduce a little bit of friendly and fair competition to encourage all members of our community to give what they can this winter. With the cost-of-living crisis, there are people in our area who will need help over the holidays. To drive as many donations as we can, we thought we’d add a bit of fun this time.
“However, whilst this is a competition, the real winners will be the people of Lancaster who visit the Olive Branch. Ultimately the ‘win’ here is to see food disturbed as best as possible across those who need it in Lancaster.”
What you can donate
Whilst all donations are welcome, the following are most flexible and appropriate for The Olive Branch to sort and distribute ahead of Christmas.
General Items
- Basic foods including cereal, porridge, rice, pasta, pasta sauce
- Tinned items including tinned tomatoes, tinned meat, tinned fruit
- Drinks including instant coffee, hot chocolate, and fruit juice
- Spreads including peanut butter, jam, and chocolate spread
- Other items including biscuits, baby food, nuts, sugar, oil
Christmas Items
- Christmas cake, mince pies, Christmas pudding, custard, rice pudding, jelly
- Tins of sweets, chocolate oranges, Christmas crackers, small toys, gift toiletries
- Shloer, grape juice, appetizer
How it works
From 1st to 16th December, the Chaplaincy will be open from 8am to 10pm to accept donations.
During this time, all members of your department/division, including students, can donate then log the weight (usually found on the package) and number of items in your donation on a computer in the Chaplaincy Centre.
All items logged will then be counted towards your department’s total.
For ease, you might want to consider setting up a local drop-off within your department for staff and students, then bring all donations down in one go.
After 5pm on 16th December the total will be counted and the following week a ‘winner’ will be announced.
About The Olive Branch
The Olive Branch is Lancaster's local foodbank which aims to support those suffering distress caused by addiction, broken family relationships, poverty and homelessness. You can find more on The Olive Branch website.
If you or someone you know needs support this Christmas, contact The Olive Branch on 01524 555715 or info@the-olivebranch.org.uk
Terms & Conditions
- All Lancaster staff and students are invited to take part.
- If you are a member of more than one department, it’s down to you which department you choose to donate on behalf of.
- Donations between 1st and 16th of December will be counted. Any donations outside this will not be counted, but will still be very welcome for The Olive Branch!
- Donations will be measured in kgs and items per person in department/division.
- Department categories are categorised as based on the organisational chart of the University. If your department isn’t shown, please find your nearest department.
- Due to resource, the tracking of kgs and items of donations is self-declaring, and we trust people to be as accurate as is fair. We will do our best to ensure fairness given the resource limitations of the Chaplaincy.