Can you help Catching Lives this Harvest season?
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
As Harvest Festival approaches, many schools, churches, workplaces and community groups will be collecting food donations to support local causes.
This autumn, we are asking our community to support Catching Lives and help us stock our pantry to ensure we can continue providing vital support to people experiencing homelessness across East Kent.
Every day, we welcome people through our doors who need practical support and essentials like food and drink. We provide fresh meals and refreshments using items from our pantry donated by our generous community.
Last year, our volunteers served 13,898 meals from our kitchen to more than 500 individuals. Harvest is a crucial time for us, ensuring our supplies are well-stocked and we are able to continue responding to this need. In recent months, demand for our services has increased substantially, meaning we have run out of lots of essential items (e.g. breakfast spreads, coffee, sugar).
What can you donate?
We particularly welcome donations of everyday kitchen essentials, such as:
Coffee
Baked beans
Tinned tomatoes
Hot chocolate
Sugar
Squash
Marmite & marmalade
Biscuits
Custard
Cereal
Rice
Tinned fruits (especially peaches and pineapple)
We also appreciate donations of toiletries and other essentials including:
Shampoo and shower gel
Toothpaste and toothbrushes
Deodorant
Razors
Laundry detergent
While all donations are appreciated, our storage is limited, and we kindly ask that you prioritise our most-needed items and avoid donating spaghetti hoops, pasta, tinned soup, tinned fish and teabags, as we still have good stocks of these.
How to donate
Whether you're a school or church planning a Harvest Festival collection, a local business doing an Autumn donation drive, or an individual wanting to help, every donation makes a difference.
If you're planning a collection for Catching Lives, we would love to hear from you! Please get in touch with Georgia, our Fundraising Coordinator, to arrange a drop-off or find out more about the items we currently need most.
Email: georgia@catchinglives.org
Phone: 01227 464904
Our capacity to collect donations is limited, so if possible, please deliver where you can. Donations can be dropped off at our day centre until 4pm:
Canterbury Open Centre, Station Road East, Canterbury, CT1 2RB
If you prefer to donate money to help us purchase our most-needed items, you can click here. Or shop our Amazon Wishlist to have items delivered directly to our day centre.
Thank you for helping us to make a difference this Harvest Festival and supplying vital food for the months ahead.
