Nearly 1,000 households benefit from this year's food and toy hamper appeal

Our employees, volunteers and corporate partners have been working together.

Published: 22/12/2020

This year, more than ever, the festive period represents a challenging time for some families and not everyone can afford the luxury of putting presents under the tree.

Thanks to the generosity of our corporate partners and the efforts of our teams and volunteers, our annual toy and hamper appeal went ahead across London and Essex, despite the difficulties we've all faced this year.

Background

The pan-London appeal was coordinated by our Volunteer Services Manager, Sarah Feleppa, with Danny Cordiner and others from the Tenant and Family Support Team. With help from 54 'Peabody Elves' volunteers, we were able to organise food hampers for households which had been referred for extra support. We also found out from families what their children had on their Christmas lists.

23 corporate volunteers provided assistance with donations and organised fundraising campaigns within their organisations. Overall, the central appeal donated 197 food hampers and 62 toy hampers to a total of 204 households, and 6 more households referred by the Transitions and Care & Support schemes were supported with vouchers to buy food and toys.

The corporate partners who donated and helped us are:

Axis, Engie, Gingko Gardens, TSG Building Services, Co-op, Sisk, BNP Paribas, T-Brown, Advanced Building, Ardmore Construction.

A huge thank you to all for your support.

Who received the hampers and toys?

• 28 food hampers were delivered to Waltham Forest residents, who were nominated through the Pantry at our Paradox Community Centre in Chingford and the toy appeal for Waltham Forest families was supported by a generous donation from Engie.
• 36 food hampers were distributed at the Pembury Community Centre i(below) n Hackney, where a small team of Peabody people came together for a socially distanced gift-wrapping session. The toys and gifts were generously donated by French bank BNP Paribas through a fundraiser campaign. In total, 64 parcels were donated, comprising over 140 toys and gifts.
• In Essex, 110 food hampers were delivered to households nominated by local support workers. Each of these hampers also included donations from local partner Scania who donated the goodybags shown in the picture below.`
  
  
• Volunteers and staff in Thamesmead (below) faced a race against time to deliver the hampers before the beginning of the Tier 3 restrictions. On Monday 14 December, the team promptly reacted to the government announcement and delivered 196 food and 175 gift hampers funded by local sponsors and partners. The team worked incredibly hard to deliver almost 400 parcels in one afternoon. This was made possible through the generosity of many local businesses and corporate partners.
  
  Additionally, 35 households in Thamesmead were supported by the central appeal.

A big thank you to those who supported the local Thamesmead appeal including:

Kairos Rehabilitation, Ade's Foods, Fast Shield Packaging Limited, The Stas Partnership Limited, Abbey Wood Station Minicabs, Meat in Place Welling, Lockmetal, CPS - Cleaning Ltd, Fareshare, Hovis, Noble House, WRS Contracts, Total Protection, Falcon Tower Crane Services, Modebest Ltd

• Following a socially-distanced gift wrapping sessions in Havering (below), 35 families received over 100 gifts, thanks both to the contribution of the central fund and our local partner, TIME FM radio station. A further 10 families were given £50 in vouchers to spend on food.

Thank you to everyone who took part this year. We're pleased to say that feedback from residents has been overwhelmingly enthusiastic.