December 1st brings a ripple of excitement in homes up and down the country: it’s time to open the first door of advent calendars and, for many, that heralds the beginning of the Christmas period. In fact, advent calendars have become big business: the high street has seen an avalanche of adult advent calendars in recent years. £68 will buy you a chocolate version from a well-known chocolate shop, whilst you’ll need something in the region of £150-300 for one of the offerings produced by famous beauty and candle brands. Got a lot of cash burning a hole in your pocket? Then perhaps the £10,000 calendar stocked with drams of rare whisky is for you.
Here at Hythe Life, we want that December 1st buzz to be for something altogether more in the spirit of Christmas, and that’s why we’ve brought back our Reverse Advent Calendar campaign for the third year.
We find that the food bank we operate is a simple but effective way of helping those in our local community who, for whatever reason, find themselves in a tricky situation. Who do you call when it’s the school holidays and having the little ones at home means there’s a stretch on the family finances, making it harder to put food on the table? What do you do when you’ve been off sick for a couple of weeks and your wages are down? Or when a cold winter spell throws your budgeting off course? These are just some of the emergencies that we find people coming to us for help with.
Callum McKenna, Salvation Army Officer
We’d love you to join us in creating an advent calendar with a difference – one that gives rather than takes. That’s why we’re asking you to create a food parcel over the first three weeks of December for our local Salvation Army foodbank. Winter – and especially Christmas – can be a particular time of need for the vulnerable in our community, as Callum McKenna, a Salvation Army officer from the Hythe branch, explains, “We find that the food bank we operate is a simple but effective way of helping those in our local community who, for whatever reason, find themselves in a tricky situation. Who do you call when it’s the school holidays and having the little ones at home means there’s a stretch on the family finances, making it harder to put food on the table? What do you do when you’ve been off sick for a couple of weeks and your wages are down? Or when a cold winter spell throws your budgeting off course? These are just some of the emergencies that we find people coming to us for help with.” We know that little actions like these can make a huge difference. It’s something that Callum McKenna is keen to point out. “Last Christmas, the tremendous support of Hythe Life readers really gave our food supplies a boost. As a collective, community action it snowballed together into something quite remarkable which kept our stores topped up well into in the new year so that when people found themselves in need, we were able to do something to help. Please know that the kindness that you show in this way will go to make a direct difference in someone else’s life.” It’s community and Christmas spirit in action – and we know we can rely on you, the wonderful residents of Hythe, to help us.
