This week I want to discuss donations.
It’s been a really significant week of donations to Hope, with lots of clothes, household goods and food. It’s great that people give and we welcome the support of local people – we really encourage it. However we do need to sometimes say what is great to give and what sometimes what we can’t handle.
Fresh food is always good, as are tins and bread. Less useful, because we get a lot, are cakes and pastries. The Hope Centre has to do its bit to keep people healthy, including our users, and lots of cakes are no good for anyone, homeless or not. It’s sad to sometimes say we don’t want some things, but a balance towards healthy food is something we are striving for here and we hope our donors can help.
It’s the same way with clothes and household goods. We have had to put a call out not to donate bric-a-brac – we can’t cope with the volumes we have. On the clothes front, what we could really do with is for a manufacturer or seller of underwear, both men and women’s, to donate a large stock, given the volume we get through.
We also need a team of volunteers, perhaps from a workplace, to come in and help us organise our stores, removing the old stock and things we will never need. Can anyone help? Would you like to round up a couple of people and get the boss to let you come down for a couple of days? It would be great.
