Food hampers and cards of kindness for the homeless in Cornwall this Christmas
Local children and hospital staff have been coming together to help Coastline’s Homeless Service
Cards of kindness and food hampers have ben donated to the homeless in Cornwall this Christmas.
School children in Helston, Redruth and Camborne and children from Coastline’s homeless families facility have been coming together to make Christmas cards for Coastline Housing residents in a bid to spread a little happiness this year.
Colleagues at Coastline worked with a number of local schools to ask children to make and share a card that could be given to a Coastline customer who might be experiencing loneliness or isolation this year.
They received 352 cards from classes at Trewirgie School in Redruth, Nansloe Academy in Helston and Weeth, Roskear and Penponds schools in Camborne. The children of families living in supported accommodation run by Coastline’s Homeless Service also joined in to make some cards.
They were packaged with a Christmas message from CEO Allister Young and handed to customers living in supported schemes in Redruth, Camborne, Helston and Pool. A number of cards were also delivered to new customers who have moved into a Coastline house within the past three months.
The initiative encouraged the children to get creative and to spread a little kindness, thinking about issues of loneliness and isolation some people might be experiencing due to the Covid pandemic and how they could help make a difference.
Sally Wears, Community Navigator at Coastline Housing, said: “It has been an absolute pleasure to get involved with local school children and see just how much effort and thought they have put into this initiative. We have been delivering the cards across our supported housing schemes and it’s been delightful to see the joy they have been putting on customers’ faces.”
Meanwhile staff and friends of the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro have come together to donate a number of items to make up food hampers and Christmas shoeboxes full of treats.
Altogether, hospital colleagues and Friends donated enough items to make up 25 food hampers, presents for 15 children at Coastline’s facility for homeless families and over 35 individual gift shoeboxes for homeless clients.
The shoeboxes contain a variety of items including treats to eat and essentials like warm gloves, socks, hats and more.
Jamie, a client of the Homeless Service, was delighted to receive his box this week and said: “Words can’t express how it made me feel. I owe this hospital so much. You have saved my life so many times and this present is the icing on the cake. Thank you, thank you. I’m thrilled.”
Polly Sutcliffe, Activities and Engagement Worker at Coastline Housing, added: “We have been absolutely overwhelmed by the generosity of staff and the Friends of the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro. When we saw just how much they had collected to help give our clients and homeless families a great Christmas we felt really quite emotional – and even had to get a bigger van to collect it all! On behalf of everyone at Coastline I would like to extend our sincere thanks. It will make a real difference to lots of people this December.”
A number of shoeboxes specifically for females were included in the large donation. Coastline has distributed these to a number of vulnerable female clients and the rest will be distributed by First Light, a local domestic violence charity.