1It's been a busy couple of weeks for Charity at St Mary's, with a home clothes day and a Harvest Festival Collection to raise money and collect food to donate to the Calne Food Bank, followed by the launch of the Christmas Shoebox appeal in Chapel on Monday. 

On Thursday 5th October we were delighted to welcome Mr Kevin Wells back from Calne Food Bank. We held our annual home clothes day to raise money for the much-needed food bank. We learned that over the past year, there have been some really positive developments for the charity, including a new central permanent base in Calne. Students were keen to hear which items were most in need and what is included in a typical food parcel.

Over the past year, the charity has also been learning more about the people it supports, and it was interesting to hear that most users visit the food bank just a few times, meaning it is a really large number of individuals and families who are supported. With the addition of the new permanent base, they have also now been able to store and supply frozen food. There is a collection box in Florence Dyas House for the food bank and we were also delighted to offer our Harvest Festival Collection to the charity. Thank you to Izzy (UVI) and Eléa (UVI) for conducting the interview with Mr Wells to learn more about the charity. 

Mr Richard Parsons from the Christmas Shoebox Appeal returned to St Mary's on Monday 9th October to talk in Chapel about the Christmas Box collections which House of Opportunity run. Izzy (UVI) had invited Mr Parsons to return to explain where last year’s collection had been distributed and to launch this year’s collection. Half Term is a great opportunity to get involved and fill it a shoe box with gift items and wrap it. Please bring completed boxes into school by the middle of November when Mr Parsons will return to school to collect them.

Mrs Claire Bolton,
Head of Community Outreach