Wheatley is often said to be the kind of community that cares for its own. And we’re so proud to announce that our community certainly came through for the 6th Howe Trust Christmas Hamper Initiative.
This year we delivered Christmas food hampers to 94 families eligible for free school meals – meaning we fed some 400-500 people in total.
But we couldn’t have done it without all the help we received from our fantastic community.
So we’d like to extend a huge thank you and recognise the contribution of all our financial donors, our volunteers, and our wonderful festive drivers.
You really are all so amazing.
Our Donors
Financial donations were made by a number of local parish councils – with Wheatley PC, Garsington PC, Risinghurst and Sandhills PC, and Forest Hill PC being particularly supportive.
We also received funding from local organisations such as The Wheatley Larder.
The generosity of our individual community donors was particularly wonderful – so our thanks go out to all those who gave; many anonymously. Amounts given ranged from £10 up to over £300. Helping others and caring about people who are less fortunate than ourselves is what Christmas is all about.
Our Suppliers
Every year we buy the turkeys and pigs in blankets from meat wholesalers Aldens of Oxford, who give us a special discount and deliver to us bright and early on the morning of the 23rd.
We were also grateful for the support of Lucy Day, ASDA Wheatley Community Champion who helped by supplying 300 bags of vegetables free of charge, as well as giving us another 300 ‘bags for life’ to put all the food in.
Our Volunteers
The Howe Trustees go out and buy all the ingredients – including stuffing, gravy, yule logs, tubs of chocolates plus all the various gluten or dairy free alternatives.
But that’s the easy bit.
We couldn’t do it all without the help of Jayne Clarke Catering and her huge fridges and freezers for storing of the 100 bags of frozen peas and 100 cans of squirty cream we need!
We also have a slick team of ‘hamper pickers’ who prepare all of the bags in the school hall, ready to be delivered.
So our special thanks go to Gill Standing the Head of Wheatley Primary School, Jenny Ramsdale, Jayne Clarke, Alan Clarke, Mat Mycock and Elin Fyffe.
They’ve given so much of their time and help every year since we started this initiative – thanks all!
And then there are the 20 volunteer driving teams – increasingly dressed up in seasonal attire!
Each team makes deliveries to 5 families on the afternoon of December 23rd, with local routes in the villages as well as more distant ones running right across the county.
Special shout outs to our long distance drivers, Mandy Green whose route involved taking her to the deep south (to Wantage) and Ali and Marc DeJong who picked the short straw with a very rural route and drove up north (to Upper Heyford).
This year we were also joined by a volunteer delivery team from the Triangle Nursing home.
I think it’s safe to say that Santa and his Elf definitely won the prize for best costumes this year!
Of course, every year the hampers are gratefully received, and this year our delivery drivers were given thank you cards by several families.
Feedback from Hamper Recipients
To quote one mum “Thank you again, honestly, this has really helped us out 💕 really appreciate you taking time to do another delivery, you’re amazing 🤩 Hope you have a lovely Christmas break xx x”
Get Involved
If you’d like to get involved next December then do get in touch – or watch out for the announcements in the village newsletter next autumn.
Wishing everyone a Happy New Year and 2026!
Leave a Reply