By Mikayla van Loon
The 10th annual Holy Fools Christmas appeal has officially launched, aiming to provide hundreds of food hampers to people in need this festive season.
Founder and chief executive officer Neal Taylor said the launch was brought forward this year to hopefully encourage people to give earlier, especially since people were already beginning to ask what items were required.
“We’ve done it a little bit earlier this year, just so that we can get going with it and get people involved sooner,” he said.
“This year, we’ve had people say to us, ‘can we see the shopping list early’?”
Putting out a shopping list of essential items that go in every hamper, like long life milk, rice, sweet biscuits, spreads, muesli bars and cans of vegetables, Mr Taylor said if people can stick to it as much as possible it’s a huge help.
Looking to create and distribute 300 hampers again this year, Mr Taylor said it may yet be another difficult task, understanding the struggles everyone is facing but he knows it can always be achieved.
“The last couple of years, it’s been really difficult. We’ve struggled to get the food for 300 hampers. I think this year, the demand is greater. The public knows to just give us what they can.
“Last year we were really thinking, ‘oh, we’re not going to do it’ and suddenly everything started to flow.”
This year, Holy Fools encourages people to make this a collective effort, to band together for the cause and to use community spirit to purchase donations.
“We’ve said to people, get together with the street or friends or family or something like that, you don’t have to do it yourself,” Mr Taylor said
“And that happened last year, a couple of people in a neighbourhood collected stuff and brought it down. We’re seeing a lot more schools get involved too.”
In the 2023/24 year Holy Fools was able to distribute 2750 meals and hampers, 123 material aid packages, with 950 individuals and families aided.
Over the year, it saw 56 volunteers dedicate 2099 hours to supporting others in the community.
The purple donation bins will soon be distributed to places like at Chirnside Park Shopping Centre, Bendigo Bank Lilydale and Mount Evelyn, with more locations to be announced soon.
The appeal will be accepting donations until 20 December. The full shopping list can be found on the Holy Fools Facebook page.
