VOLUNTEERS calling themselves Santa’s elves have been busy packing hampers for families experiencing hardship at Christmas.
Kaleidoscopic UK supports children and adults who have been exposed to domestic abuse.
The group received £2,000 from Wokingham United Charities, and the same amount from Berkshire Community Foundation.
They have used the money to provide hampers filled not only with Christmas treats, but with food essentials to get families through the festive week.
Kaleidoscopic volunteers have been working very hard, creating and filling hampers.
“Our wonderful elves pack everything a family needs for a week, including some of the nice things enjoyed at Christmas, like hot chocolate, marshmallows, mince pies and savouries,” said Kaleidoscopic UK CEO Vickie Robertson.
But the hampers also need to cover breakfast, lunch and dinner, to feed families right through the Christmas period.
“People often get donations of chocolates, which are lovely, but what the families actually need is food to keep them going over Christmas,” she explained.
For this reason hampers include curries, rice, pasta, and long life products, along with a present for the mum in each family.
“It’s available for every mum, or dad, but it just happens that all the families this year are mums with their children,” she said.
Luke Smith, from Modular Build Group (MBG) in Wokingham, offered his warehouse for Kaleidoscopic to store the goods, and pack the hampers.
“I wanted to see if we could help local people in some way,” he said.
“We have the storage facility, vans, and people, so we can ship everything out quickly and make sure families have something to look forward to at Christmas.”
“Lots of our families don’t drive, so the MBG team are our fabulous reindeer, and deliver for us,” said Ms Robertson.
“I would like to say a massive thank you to all our teams, on behalf of each and every client who will no doubt message us in tears to say how much the hampers have helped to save Christmas.
“And a special shout to Tesco Wokingham community champion Louise Jedras.
“We ordered everything through Tesco Wokingham, and Louise did a lot of planning and organising to make things run smoothly.”
More than two thousand items were put through the tills by Ms Jedras, who said: “For the last four years I’ve picked an order for Kaleidoscopic.
“Every year it grows bigger, and this year I had to pick 2240 items.”
“Work begins in October when Vickie sends her list and everything goes onto a huge spreadsheet.”
Picked on a Sunday, when the store was closed, with help from family members and colleagues, Dave Jedras, and Freddie Jedras, items were then stacked in Tesco’s warehouse.
“I’m just a small part of this amazing network of people who ensure that Kaleidoscopic UK families have some lovely food for the festive season,” said Ms Jedras.
Ms Robertson agrees.
“Team work makes the dream work,” she said.
