It’s that time of year again when everyone’s thoughts start turning to the end of December, and Christmas. And at this time of year, for the last few years, the UK Money Bloggers start talking about a Reverse Advent.

A Reverse Advent – what’s that I hear you cry? It can be many things. One year, instead of opening a little window and eating a chocolate, I decluttered one item and gave it away on facebook marketplace, the local free group for the town where I live, or took it to a charity shop. Not literally once a day, but (at least) one item for each day in November that I then took a great deal of satisfaction on passing on to someone else who would appreciate whatever it was more than me.

This year, once more, I will be taking part in a Reverse Advent where I will be putting one item for each day of November in a box, for the local food bank, initiated by the UKMB Join our Foodbank Advent campaign with a reverse advent calendar – UK Money Bloggers

I did the same in 2017 and here. And again last year

I think I’ll get all the items in one or two goes this year and just place them in the box one day at a time, taking them to a donation point, or to the food bank during the first week of December. It needs to be then to allow the food banks to distribute the items. Most food banks are open two or three times a week, so need time to use donations.

So, what shall I get?

What does the food bank need?

I headed off to the Hailsham food bank site to check what they need this year. They have been having some wonderful donations from harvest festival events at local schools, so have lots of the basic stuff. But are short of certain other items which I’ll get some of for them.

I was interested to see a couple of new things on their website this year too which make it easier to give to them.

For Common Good

The Hailsham foodbank say

We are often short of toiletries, household goods such as washing tablets and certain size nappies.  You can choose an item from our registry and it gets sent direct to us.  Find our registry at https://www.forcommongood.co.uk/apps/giftregistry/find?name=Hailsham+foodbank.

I hadn’t heard of this service before and I’m very impressed that the items they have listed are at very good prices, often cheaper than the supermarket cheapest. So I’ll definitely be using that service in future, but not for the Reverse Advent.

Bankuet

The other new thing is a service called Bankuet. I hadn’t heard of this before either.

If you don’t necessarily shop locally or sometimes forget to pick up a donation then do go to  https://www.bankuet.co.uk/hailsham where you can buy a food parcel that contains only the items we need the most and it gets sent direct to us.

This is where Bankuet comes in. With Bankuet, you can give to a food bank at the touch of a button through our website.

Plus, we make sure your donation goes as far as possible for maximum impact through the power of bulk buying; for every £1 you give, we deliver more than £1 of food!

This is a good service, making it easy to support your food bank, or ANY foodbank that is currently in need. Here at Thrifty Lesley, I and all our lovely readers specialise in creating food for around a £1 a day, so it raised a wry smile that Bankuet says that £20 is needed to feed a person for a week. Not everyone has our skills people!

Please Join Me In Supporting Your Local Food Bank

There will be posts on Twitter using the hashtag #FoodBankAdvent so you can see what I and other UK Money Bloggers are doing.

Please do join us – there will be more blog posts outlining how you can help and other ideas to support your local foodbank. I’m ashamed that this wealthy country has any kind of need for any kind of food bank. But while there is a need, I will try to help. If you can afford to do so, I hop you will join in.