Member Article

Foodbank thanks Hoults Yard for helping to transform Christmas

HUNDREDS of Tyneside families have had their Christmases transformed thanks to the generosity of people working in Newcastle’s ‘business village.’

Companies based in Hoults Yard, Byker, donated more than 3,000 items to Newcastle East’s Foodbank.

It is the second time Hoults Yard have collected food and toiletries to donate to a local food bank. Last Christmas, the Yard made the biggest ever single donation to Newcastle West’s Foodbank when companies collected more than 2,200 items of food and toiletries.

This year’s appeal produced a similar result for Newcastle East Foodbank. Julia Lawton, Community Projects Manager at Elim Church in Heaton Road, Newcastle, which operates the foodbank, said: “We’ve been blown away by the generosity of Hoults Yard and their contribution has been huge – the biggest single donation we’ve had so far. I’d just like to say a huge thank you to them, they will have made a massive difference to Christmas for hundreds of local families.”

The idea for last year’s appeal came from Claire Schollar, Project Administrator from BPP Tech, with Onyx Health and Silverbean, providing marketing support to get the collection off the ground. This year’s ‘Stocking Up’ campaign was driven by the same team.

Ryan Gibson, Digital Account Executive at Onyx Health, a healthcare marketing, communications and PR agency, explained: “Our MD Karen Winterhalter was really impressed by last year’s Yard collection and inspired us to do something even bigger so we could support the hundreds of families local to Hoults Yard needing help this Christmas.”

Onyx Health and digital marketing agency Silverbean talked to the organisers of the Newcastle East Foodbank about what particular items would be needed and then launched Stocking Up, collecting items over a two-week period.

“The response was amazing and ourselves and Silverbean acted as collection points for gifts. We wanted to collect as much food as we could. Our target was to collect enough items to make 1,000 meals. Silverbean raised more than £1,000 and then did a huge shop at Asda to add to the collection, so I’m sure we’ve more than smashed that target,” added Ryan.

“We added an element of fun and competition by having a collection box stack contest between ourselves and Silverbean. The aim was to collect our heights in selection boxes – we won!”

Charlie Hoult, owner of the Yard, said: “Hoults Yard is all about making the positives from our team spirit and operating inclusively with our village vibe. Christmas is about spreading the love, so it’s great that we can amplify the grassroots contributions of a few really caring souls, by working as a community to give to those less fortunate and make it a race to smash our previous year’s help. While food banks are a blot on our state support, now isn’t the time to question the context, but to raise the profile of the cause and add a twinkle those in need.”

Gifts were also donated by businesses in HYpoint, formerly Gear House in Gateshead, which joined the growing Hoults Yard hubs portfolio over the summer. Newcastle East Foodbank opened in 2012 and annually provides about 4,500 three-day emergency food supplies to people in crisis. It is part of a nationwide network of foodbanks supported by The Trussell Trust.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Hoults Yard .