£140K start to homelessness campaign

Charities working with homeless people will benefit from a new Lincolnshire Co-op fundraising campaign, which kicked off with the community retailer giving away £140,000 worth of food, household goods and toiletries.

During December, January and February, 14 homelessness charities will be Lincolnshire Co-op’s chosen Community Champions. It means that every time a member shops using their dividend card, a donation will be made to one of those charities. Staff fundraising and the proceeds from the carrier bag levy will also go into the pot.

The initiative launched with the donation of £140,000 of groceries, split between charities which have a Lincolnshire Co-op food store nearby. The goods will be used for food parcels and by people in emergency and supported accommodation run by those groups.

Products given away included 720 cans of baked beans, 1,080 packets of rice pudding, 900 tins of vegetable soup, 1,360 shower gels, 600 boxes of tissues and 1,200 bottles of washing up liquid.

Activities will include The Big Co-op Christmas Raffle, the Santa’s Suitcase appeal in travel branches and toiletry collections in the Society's 49 pharmacies.

Lincolnshire Co-op’s Community Manager Sam Turner said: “It’s one of the simplest comforts we have – a place to call home. And yet hundreds of people across our area are struggling to find one. It’s a very vulnerable situation to be in.

“We’re excited to be raising funds for our Community Champions - 14 amazing charities which are working with homeless people and raising awareness of the issues surrounding homelessness.

“We’ve started with this major donation of groceries, which will help people in emergency and ‘move on’ accommodation. This is just the beginning – we’ve got lots of different fundraising events and initiatives planned.”

Centrepoint Outreach in Boston will use the groceries donation in its day centre.

The charity’s Liz Hopkins said: “We often make snacks during our drop-in sessions and also make up emergency food parcels – this donation will help us do that. We also offer a shower and washing facilities at our day centre so the toiletries will be used there.

“The cleaning products are very handy to have too. Money that we don’t have to spend on buying such goods is money we can use to fund our work.”