Hope Centre praises landlord for giving up space for six months to accommodate ‘vital’ donation point

The Hope Centre has praised a generous landlord, for giving up their space for six months to accommodate a new and “vital” donation point for the charity.

The Hope Foodclub is all set to use Billing Mill, in Great Billing, for six months to receive and process donations, which has kindly been lent by AJ Mackaness Ltd.

Heading into one of the busiest seasons of the year, the Hope Centre feels more confident moving forward with a new, accessible donation point under their belt.

Louise Danielczuk, the charity’s fundraising and marketing manager, said: “In the autumn and winter months, we have an awful lot of donations we need to process and get to the right people.”

When it comes to clothes, they first need to be sorted into ages and seasons. Seasonal adult clothes are given to the homeless community, children’s clothes are distributed through the food larders, and out-of-season clothing is stored away.

Food also needs to be sorted and distributed to the right people – and Louise says the donation point will play a big role in their homeless provision.

Whether donations are utilised at Oasis House, the food larders, or the community cafe, Louise said: “It allows us to support the right people at the right time.”

This all came about when the Hope Centre issued an appeal on social media and after they were informed that Billing Mill had been empty for a while, Louise said they “jumped at the chance”.

When asked just how much of a relief it is to have somewhere lined up going into one of the busiest seasons, Louise said: “It’s vital for us. If we didn’t have this, we would have to turn donations away and we just can’t do that.”

The Hope Centre is currently helping “more people than ever before”, with the number of homeless individuals having “increased freefold”.

The team helps 60 homeless people a day and 2,500 families at their food larders each week.

The main benefit of having a separate donation point is that it will not disrupt the other important services the Hope Centre offers and everything can continue as normal.

It is hoped the donation point will be up and running by the end of the month and the Hope Centre wanted to remind people they are always looking for willing volunteers.

Volunteers can help across any of their services and it is all hands on deck in the run up to Christmas – as well as those who are happy to help on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

Talking about how much of a difference people’s generosity makes, Louise said: “We genuinely could not do our work if it wasn’t for the support of the Northamptonshire community.”

While speaking to the Chronicle & Echo, Louise was surrounded by public donations – which enabled the Hope Centre to help a man who visited today with no food in his home. He was given enough to last 24 hours until his visit to the food larder.

“We hear stories like this all the time,” said Louise. “And it’s not even winter yet and people haven’t had to put their heating on.”

For more information or to reach out to the Hope Centre, visit their website here.