Rachel's Diaries: Why I'm Doing A Reverse Advent Calendar

I'm looking forward to spending the festive season with my family and close friends. There's always gifts, games, fun and laughs and of course lots of food and drinks, so this year I've decided to join in with #FoodBankAdvent to create a 'Reverse Advent Calendar' for my local food bank to help those who will have nothing to eat this Christmas. This is the first time in quite sometime that we've actually done this and I wanted to get the little ones involved too.

I know a lot of people start these in November but I wanted to get the kiddies involved, so while they open their chocolate calendars, they get to put an item into the reverse advent calendar box each day. So instead of taking something out, they're putting something in. It's as easy as that. So the whole idea behind the Food Bank Advent is that you get a large box and put an item into it each day during November (December for us), and then drop it off at your local Food Bank or supermarket collection points so that it can be sorted and distributed to those who need them over the Christmas period. You can find your nearest Trussell Trust Food Bank here.

The biggest organisation that runs the food banks in the UK is The Trussell Trust, but there may be different charities or organisations in your local area., so I'd say do a quick search on google and see what you can find. In my area The Trussell Trust has a list of products that they need which includes:-

So far in our box we have 2 tins of soup, toothpaste and a bar of soap. it is only day 4 so we will be adding each and every day until Christmas Eve then we will go and donate our box to our nearest food bank. If you're on a budget you don't have to go mad, just pick up the supermarket own branded items or head into Aldi it's cheap as chips and you can pick up just about anything.

I know Christmas can be an expensive time of year so if you can't spare anything now then why not give in the New Year. Your donations will be welcome at any time of year.

But let's face it we shouldn't have to donate anything and food banks shouldn't really exist and be here, we are one of the richest countries so poverty shouldn't be a thing. But I don't think that will be changing any time soon so lets show some love and compassion for those that need it at this time of year.