The run up to Christmas can make the festive period seem like a time of overindulgence and, after yet another tough year, many of us will be looking forward to putting our feet up and enjoying the big day.
However, the Christmas period is also traditionally known as a time of giving, especially during advent.
Colleagues at the Mattioli Woods office in Newmarket do not believe anyone should go hungry or without the essentials. They launched their own Reverse Advent campaign in 2016 where rather than opening a door of an advent calendar each day for a treat, colleagues donated a food item instead. Thanks to the generosity of our colleagues we were able to donate 12 shopping bags of items - including food, toiletries and pet food - to Newmarket Open Door, a registered charity who work tirelessly to help the homeless within the district.
Unfortunately, the need for food banks has increased across the UK this year, especially with many families seeing a reduction in income due to the end of the furlough scheme and the Universal Credit (UC) uplift.
The Reverse Advent campaign was such a success that a further campaign was launched in July 2018 to provide food and essentials for children with no access to free school meals throughout the school holidays.
Sadly, due to Covid-19 there were no collections during 2020 as the office remained closed however this Christmas the drive was back and both Tanya Serracanti and Louise Murphy were able to drop off the collection to Open Door.
One food bank user highlighted how much goodwill there is in the world saying, “being a single mum to two young children I find this time of year very difficult! I am so grateful to have received this package to help with Christmas.”
Senior Client Relationship Manager Tanya Serracanti said, “Each year the Mattioli Woods Newmarket team come together to donate food stuffs and everyday essentials for the local foodbank. These donations are gratefully received by the team at Open Door. These donations ensure families and individuals who are struggling and have fallen on difficult times for many reasons have access to the things a lot of us take for granted.”
