Each year at Christmas, local community group Micah Projects provides many opportunities for people who are marginalised and living in poverty to celebrate and enjoy the festive season.
One of the Christmas activities they undertake, alongside their supporters, is to organise, pack and deliver Christmas food hampers and fresh fruit for the individuals and families they support on Christmas Eve.
If you’re interested in volunteering you can join the Christmas Hamper Volunteer Mailing List by emailing info@micahprojects.org.au and putting ‘Christmas Hamper Volunteer’ in the subject header.
Micah Projects will also be contacting everyone who volunteered with packing and delivering hampers over the last few years, to see if they would like to be involved again.
They’ll also be sending out fundraising updates as they progress but you can check out how much has been raised at anytime – just have a look here: http://www.givenow.com.au/micahprojectschristmashamper
Christmas 2013:
Across the Families teams, 41 adults and 63 children attended Christmas Parties and a total of 128 children received Christmas gifts. We also provided gifts and food for children attending Murri Christmas and for families working with Micah Projects teams including Assessment and Referral, Homefront, Brisbane Common Ground and Street to Home.
In addition, Lotus Place held six Christmas events for Forgotten Australians, attended by a total of 293 people.
Hamper breakdown:
85 individuals & couples received fresh fruit hampers
40 families received large fresh fruit hampers
146 individuals at Brisbane Common Ground received fresh fruit hampers
108 individuals received Christmas food gift packs
55 individuals and couples received food hampers and fresh fruit platters on Christmas Eve
62 families received large food hampers and fresh fruit platters on Christmas Eve
Total of 496 hampers. Each large hamper had enough groceries to last one week
Volunteer drivers distributed gifts to the Brisbane metropolitan area and beyond, delivering as far as Maleny and the Gold Coast
244 volunteers participated on Christmas Eve
Total of $20,582.25 was raised by the community to purchase hampers and provide emergency housing so that no child or families are on the street or in cars over Christmas.
A message from the CEO
We value our continued partnership with St Mary’s Community and we thank all our donors for their generosity, from children giving their pocket money and businesses giving significant amounts, to the volunteers who assemble and deliver the hampers.
Giving at Christmas time shows that the Brisbane community is engaged and thinking of those with less, and facing adversity at Christmas. From all of us at Micah Projects, thank you again for contributing to such a joyful festive season and we wish you all good health and wellbeing in 2015.
Happy New Year!
Karyn Walsh, CEO Micah Projects
