Brackley Area Volunteer Car Service – busy this Christmas

This year Christmas is proving to be a busy time for snvb and Brackley Area Volunteer Car Service.

Besides supporting the Community Food Larder we are also part of the “Brackley Elf “ group which has been set up by volunteers, including BAVCS to ensure that no-one faces isolation or loneliness over these coming weeks.

The biggest and most successful part of this so far, has been the organisation and collection of items that are being put together and sent out to each care/retirement facility within Brackley. This was organised and supported through each of the schools in Brackley by allocating each one a care/retirement home and requesting pupils to bring in items that would then be isolated and sent on to each facility. The response for this has been amazing and needless to say very much appreciated. BAVCS and snvb have been central to this effort.

This is an ongoing project with each school collecting on a specific week to ensure that each facility receives a hamper or four!

We have been and still are supporting Brackley Community Larder and last week deliveries were made to recipients who really needed the boxes – so a successful week with no hiccups!

We are also working alongside the Headteachers of the schools in Brackley to identify those families that are facing hardship at the moment. By working with them we are able to ensure that those families will also receive Christmas Boxes that will contain gifts specifically for their children, chosen from a selection that has been purchased and donated via an Amazon Wishlist and GoFunding page. These families will also receive food items to ensure that they are able to enjoy a decent meal on Christmas Day along with Christmas Crackers. We are also hoping to add these families to the Community Food Larder Scheme and possibly do deliveries into Schools on a Friday to ensure that these families are able to feed themselves over the weekend as there has been great concern that the children are only eating whilst at school (free hot meals)

The Elves are also driving a “Community Christmas Cards” project where again BAVCS and snvb are heavily involved. The idea is to get families to write out an extra Christmas Card which will then be passed on to someone facing isolation or loneliness this Christmas. We are working with Kim from the Saints Community Group on this one. The Brackley Volunteer Centre is going to be a drop off point for these cards.

As this will identify lonely residents we currently have 100 goody bags which will be finding their way to these lonely residents on the lead up to Christmas. These bags are filled with lots of lovely items including fancy mince pies, biscuits, scarfs, gloves, socks, smellies and party hats. BAVCS will be delivering these bags once the residents have been identified.

For more information about Brackley Elves and these projects, please contact the Volunteer Centre… or email rachel@snvb.org.uk