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

Feeding the Birds

In different areas of Crag House Farm, bird feeding stations have been installed to enable us to feed the birds regularly. This task becomes especially important as the weather worsens and the hours of daylight shorten. 

We are thrilled to have sizeable colonies of tree sparrows here at Crag House Farm, the home of Caring For Life. Tree sparrows are still on the Red List for Birds of Conservation Concern and we are encouraged by how well they are flourishing in the environment here, due to nesting sites, nest boxes and habitat creation, as well as regular feeding of a suitable birdseed. 

The feeding stations are frequented by lots of other birds as well, and seeing birds feeding quietly is something that visitors to the site can enjoy, as well as those on therapeutic projects at Caring For Life, who help to top up the feeders.

---

#CragHouseFarm #CaringForLife #CFL #BirdFeeding #Conservation #FeedtheBirds

Playing A Crucial Part

Corporate volunteers from HSBC came along to Caring For Life this week to play a crucial part in the preparations for Christmas. Sorting countless tins of food might not sound or look very Christmassy, but this is one step in the process of giving over 100 people an incredibly special Christmas.

Kind churches, schools, individuals, Scout groups, children’s nurseries and other organisations which donate food at harvest time, make all this possible. Staff and volunteers undertake the initial, mammoth task of sorting food.

Our kind HSBC volunteers sorted tins this week, ready for Christmas hamper packing. Soon, other corporate volunteers will be making up the actual Christmas food hampers. Then our Being There housing support team swing into action and deliver hampers and gifts. 

Only those who deliver the hampers see the reaction on people’s faces as they receive this lovely gift, but many people have played an absolutely crucial part in enabling this to happen.

To everyone, we say a very big, special thank you!!

---

#CragHouseFarm #CaringForLife #CFL #Harvest #TinSorting #HSBC #Volunteers #Donations