Let packing commence........

........for the NWN Parcel Fund

Joanne Fulker reports from Parcel Towers:

SINCE 1987, the Newbury Weekly News Over-80s Christmas Parcel Fund has been bringing a little Christmas joy into the lives of many of West Berkshire’s oldest citizens.

The people receiving a food parcel are not means tested in any way as the Over 80s Parcel Fund is purely a way for the Newbury Weekly News to send a Christmas greeting and message to people in West Berkshire, thanking them for everything they have done during their lifetime.

The three distribution areas in Newbury, Thatcham and Hungerford have now put their final lists of names together and let me know how many food parcels we are going to need to deliver on Saturday, December 9.

Fundraising has not yet finished and the annual sports quiz night at The Bowlers Arms, Wash Common, took place last Thursday.

Many teams enjoyed testing their knowledge, answering questions set by quizmaster Steve Smith.

The winning team each won a bottle of whisky kindly donated by Budgens.

Thanks to Richard Hayman at the Bowlers Arms for allowing us to hold the quiz there and also the companies who donated raffle prizes, which helped increase the total raised to more than £240.

Over at Sainsbury’s last weekend, we had the Kennet School pupils on Saturday, and Downe House school on Sunday, helping shoppers to pack their shopping bags at the tills.

Members of Newbury Rotary Club were also there, collecting any spare change, filling our distinctive red tins to the brim.

In total, we raised £1,844.62, which has definitely helped towards the large food bill of nearly £19,000 we will be paying Sainsbury’s next week.

Thank you to both schools and the Newbury Rotarians for giving up some of their time.

It’s all happening now at Parcel Towers and more than 60 Cubs – our equivalent of Santa’s Elves – from 1st Newbury, Wash Common, Greenham, 4th Newbury and 3rd Newbury, Chandos and Dolman groups, plus business people from BNI Jack O’ Newbury Chapter, Vodafone staff and Sainbury’s staff, are all very kindly giving up their Sunday morning this weekend to pack nearly 2,000 food parcels that we will be distributing to all the recipients the following weekend.

n To keep up to date with all the latest Parcel Fund news, see the Newbury Weekly News each week from now until Christmas.