Public urged to support Northamptonshire Community Foundation's Surviving Winter campaign

The campaign is always launched on November 29, straight after Black Friday and Cyber Monday and offers an alternative to the shopping frenzy and encourages people to do good things for the charities and causes they care about.

The Surviving Winter appeal aims to save lives and help isolated and vulnerable older people. The winter can be one of the hardest seasons to get through for the most vulnerable in our community due to isolation and cold.

Individuals and organisations from across the county spread the warmth and donated to Surviving Winter on Giving Tuesday. Waitrose in Rushden collected green tokens for the Surviving winter Appeal as part of their community matters scheme.

Tesco Wellingborough stores wrapped up warm to support Surviving Winter with all of their staff wearing scarves in stores across Wellingborough. Tesco generously donated £1,000 to kick-start the appeal on Giving Tuesday.

As well as fundraising for Surviving Winter, Tesco have also donated 100 blankets and food boxes to Northamptonshire’s Food Poverty Network. The blankets and food boxes will be distributed to those most in need during the winter months.

Tesco said: "It is a pleasure to support Northamptonshire Community Foundation’s Surviving Winter campaign. The appeal focuses on the support for older people in our community who are severely affected by the cold weather. Hopefully, our donation will help the most vulnerable of people in Northamptonshire to survive winter and gain the support they need.”

Victoria Miles DL, CEO of Northamptonshire Community Foundation, said: “We are delighted to receive £1,000 from Tesco. Their kind donation will help vulnerable older people across Northamptonshire during the winter as it can be one of the hardest seasons to get through for the older community.”

The evenings are expected to get even colder with this week’s temperatures getting as low as -3 degrees. Many older people can die in freezing temperatures, every degree drop below 5C sees a 3.4 percent increase in deaths.

Although Surviving Winter has received a great amount of money already, Northamptonshire Community Foundation would like to raise as much money as possible to support the most vulnerable in our communities.

Online donations are continuing to be doubled until Friday December 2, those who didn’t get the chance to donate on Giving Tuesday can still have their donations doubled. You can donate on the Surviving Winter fundraising page https://secure.thebiggive.org.uk/donation/to/260/25676/