Stepping up a Gear

Everything has to step up a gear here at Caring For Life as Christmas approaches. We are busy all year round, but this time of the year brings extra activities and responsibilities for us. We are very grateful for the support received at our first Christmas Fayre, and look forward to a second event soon, but it all requires lots of preparation.

Santa arrives on horse and cart for our first Christmas Fayre of 2019.

At Crag House Farm in the centre, where everyone gathers for coffee and for meals, a poster has given advance notice of some special Christmas activities in the week ahead, ensuring that everyone who attends the various therapeutic activity projects gets to join in one of the fun sessions!

Then, alongside all their usual work, the Being There housing support team is busy distributing hampers and gifts to those they support who will not be with us on Christmas Day.

Lots of logistics are involved in ensuring that no one is missed.  Christmas can be a very tough and isolating time for people who may never have had a happy Christmas in the past, or who have no family to be with. So no one minds stepping up a gear to ensure that each person is provided for. 

Our prayer is that our efforts to care for each person will turn their eyes to Christ, as Christmas is all about Him and His incredible love for each of us.

---

#CragHouseFarm #CaringForLife #CFL #ChristmasHampers #DeliveringChristmasCheer #ChristmasFayre2019 #ChristmasActivities

Seeking Food and Shelter

Caring For Life is blessed to be sited at Crag House Farm, where we see many beautiful sights, even on crisp, frosty, wintry days. The sunrises and sunsets can be amazing at this time of the year and men and women attending daytime therapeutic projects here start to comment when they see a really glorious sunset at the end of the afternoon. 

A closer look enables us to point out lots of birds feeding on the hedgerows and trees around the Farm. With a bumper crop of holly berries this year, we have seen flocks of redwings gobbling up the berries, joined by blackbirds, mistle thrushes and also jays.

The berries form a vital food source, whilst other birds flock to our bird feeding stations. 

The birds have been busily feeding from early morning till almost dark, to stock up on their reserves before very cold nights. Wrens and long tailed tits can also be seen flocking together at sunset, seeking out sheltered spots for a communal roost, to help them survive the night.

At Caring For Life, we receive referrals of people seeking food and shelter all year round, but these requests can increase in the more severe weather. We often need to deliver a food parcel immediately to someone in need, and there may be requests for accommodation which have to be dealt with speedily in a crisis. There is always lots to do for Christmas events, as well as ongoing planning, plus starting to deliver gifts and hampers. But a priority is to seek to ensure that each person has the food and shelter they need.

---

#CragHouseFarm #CaringForLife #CFL #HollyBerries #FeedTheBirds #BirdFeeder #SeekingFoodAndShelter

Crucial Help at Christmas

Christmas is still some time away, but we have to get ready early here at Caring For Life. Over 100 Christmas food hampers have to be prepared, ready for distribution by members of our Being There housing support team.

This task alone requires a great deal of preparation, and we are so thankful to all those who gave donations of harvest food, which has enabled this wonderful end result of a Christmas hamper! A huge amount of sorting has already taken place, in preparation for this final task.

On hamper-packing day, tins have to be packed into the Christmas hamper bags, then the hampers taken to a different store on the Farm so that dried foods can be added, along with Christmas treats. 

We are extremely grateful to Allianz UK who sent 13 staff to help us this week. They worked really  hard to get the hampers completed in good time and formed a “dream team”, having fun on the day.

Caring For Life seeks to ensure that no one we support is forgotten at Christmas, but it is a big task and the help of corporate volunteer teams is absolutely crucial! 

---

#CragHouseFarm #CaringForLife #CFL #Harvest #PackingHampers #Allianz #Volunteers #ChristmasHampers