This year ATCS is supporting The Whitechapel Centre, a local charity that supports people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. Back at the end of November Rita and I went to visit one of their drop off points and to speak to Toni, community events and fundraiser for the charity. She shared a lot of information about how the charity operates, who they help and most importantly ways in which we could help.
Raising funds is always part of the remit but it became obvious during our conversation with Toni there were additional support we could give as well. One such way was to help with their kettle parcels. They have a very specific list of food that can be donated and parcels are made up from these items and handed out to individuals. The parcel contains enough food for the week and any of the hot items can all be made with the use of a kettle, hence the kettle parcel list.
It was decided that once a term we would ask students to bring in anything from the list. We are so grateful for all the donations that literally flooded in during that one week in January. In total there were 318 items donated and there is photographic evidence of the haul in the photo gallery.
In addition to that I also obtained a collection tin from Toni and this is placed on the table at each class. In just two weeks the tin was full and a staggering £69 was raised for the centre. This was paid into our Justgiving page.