For over 30 years, Families in Need (FIND) Ipswich has offered a lifeline to people in Ipswich and the surrounding areas who are experiencing poverty and despair.
FIND provides free food parcels and personal care items to help people get through a crisis, as well as furniture, bedding and other household items where the person or family has none.
An army of over 80 volunteers regularly give their time freely to check and sort the donated food, collect items from local stores and churches, make up food parcels and deliver them. It's a six day a week operation.
Every year the number of food parcels distributed increases; in 2020 and 2021 the figure was 7,600, an increase on the 6.000 or so parcels in 2019. Some of the people in crisis who FIND supports with food parcels need help for many weeks until their benefits, wages or health are restored.
The following are some of the items you can donate:
Long grain rice; soups; tinned vegetables, meat, fruit and desserts; long life whole milk; jams; pet foods; sugar; and toiletries for men, women and children. Any such non--perishable items can be deposited in the FIND collecting bin in the church porch. Additionally donations of fresh foods like butter, cheese, fruit and vegetables will be welcome but these should only be donated direct to FIND and not left in collecting bins.
Sometimes people have nothing and FIND regularly steps in to help individuals with no money for even the most basic personal and household items they need. FIND has a furniture store and every week its volunteers will pick up items from the store and deliver them to individuals and families in need. To continue to offer this service, donations of furniture and other household items which are in good condition, are needed. Such items include:
Children's shoes and school clothing; cookers and kitchen equipment - saucepans, crockery, cutlery; beds and bedding - blankets, sheets, pillows, duvets; living room furniture - tables, chairs, settees, chests of drawers etc; whitegoods such as fridges, washing machines and curtains and blinds.
FIND also provides support for rough sleepers. There are many ways in which FIND helps such people - it provides footwear, clothing, warm coats, sleeping bags; it helps pay for prescriptions, helps with travel and provides food parcels. It also has a small emergency fund to help in paying for emergency accommodation for rough sleepers. To enable this service to continue, donations of warm clothing, sleeping bags, coats, footwear are always needed.
Cash donations can also be made and will always be very welcome. You can donate by cheque made payable to "FIND (Families in Need ) Ltd" for donations to the central fundraising account or to "Food Bank FIND" for donations to support the food bank. Cheques can be sent direct to FIND at PO Box 1029, Ipswich, IP1 9XJ or you can drop any donations clearly marked for FIND in the collection plate at church. Finally, you can also donate on line via FIND's LocalGiving page by clicking here.
The East Anglian Daily Times recently published an article about FIND, a charity which we have supported at St Mary Magdalen's for many years. In the article Maureen Reynel appealed for more donations to help meet the increasing demand for FIND's services, as well as an appeal for volunteer drivers to help deliver the food parcels. If you can help with the former, don't forget our FIND tub, which is always in the church porch, to accept your donations. If you can sparer 2 or 3 hours regularly to help with the latter, please contact FIND direct - you can find details on the FIND website or ring Maureen on 01473 833351. You can read the full EADT article here.
