Help needed with Christmas hampers
Tolmay said the hampers collected would be given to school children in December
OPERATION Anti-Freeze, an inner-city upliftment project, has kicked off its Christmas hamper drive.
Non-perishable food collected from now will be packed into hampers to be distributed in December.
“We run school projects where we support 11 schools and a crèche by providing 500 food parcels monthly to children who have been identified by teachers as in dire need of assistance. We also supply spreads, such as peanut butter, jams and mayonnaise, as well as fruit and vegetables, when possible, to the schools to help them provide lunch for these children,” said Hilary Tolmay, project coordinator and fund-raiser.
“For some of the children the meal they get at school is the only meal they will have for the day. Many of these children do not eat from the Friday when they leave school until the Monday when they return.”
Tolmay said the hampers collected would be given to these schoolchildren in December before the schools close to ensure they have food to eat during the school holidays. They need 500 hampers for the schools alone.
“If we manage to collect more than the 500, we will hand them out at our December soup kitchen. To have enough hampers for both the schools and our soup kitchen we will need to pack 1 200 hampers. We need companies and individuals to get involved to help us to reach our target and to share some Christmas spirit with those less fortunate.”
Operation Anti-Freeze has collection bins at the Super Spar at Glen Acres, Norse Mall outside Checkers as well as Palm Springs and The Avenues in Springs. They can supply collection boxes to any companies or shopping centres who would like to get involved.
“We are trying to find individuals or companies to sponsor food parcels for the schools we support each month. Each food parcel costs R35 and the number of children supported in each school ranges between 11 and 84.
“The need in the schools has increased drastically. This time last year we were supplying 262 food parcels monthly. We are now supplying 500. At the moment we are only able to provide one basic food parcel a month, which is not enough. Sponsoring a school would allow us to provide a second, more substantial food parcel each month,” Tolmay said.
They can issue tax deductable donation receipts for any monetary donations. For more information, contact Hilary on 072-959-7242 or at antifreeze@mweb.co.za.
