Tonnes of generosity
On Saturday I spent some time volunteering with a new initiative called the Cardiff Foodbank. I must admit it’s not the sort of thing I usually do, although I am involved in a number of charitable organisations.
In December I met with Ian Purcell one of the organisers who talked me through what the Foodbank does, and how it is linked into the UK charity. Foodbank asks people for food donations which can be stored and given through a voucher scheme to families in crisis who are identified by health and social care professionals.
I got involved as it caught my attention because the charity helps families in Cardiff, and it targets groups for whom there’s little community support.
I am not doing to apologise for believing that unless charity begins at home then we have little chance in fostering an understanding as to how to be kind to anyone else in the world. I know that there is considerable suffering outside of the UK but in fairness the government and organisations do an incredible amount of work overseas. We are all taken by the pictures of destruction, famine and disease on TV but the plight of our immediate neighbours can all too often be overlooked. The families in crisis helped by Foodbank are those where the effects of unemployment might be starting to hit hard or where an elderly person for example might have little or no family support. It’s the sort of situations where there’s not much help at the moment.
So on Saturday I helped out at Sainsbury’s in Thornhill where we encouraged shoppers to donate items from our shopping list and it was a massive success. The organisation was first class, we were ordered into three groups to hand out leaflets, collect items at the tills and load the food into the van. The generosity of the public was incredible; the spirit of human kindness on full display and apart from a few people who weren’t too interested the response was more than a tonne of food collected. One lady even donated a full trolley load!
I came away glowing, not because of what I did, but because of what I saw.