Thanks archive

Thank you

Volunteers Week

A HUGE THANK YOU to all our wonderful VOLUNTEERS!

Did you know that Holme Valley Foodbank is run entirely by volunteers?

It’s all go – collecting food, sorting, packing, delivering food, thinking up new ideas, covering for emergencies, handling difficult issues, relaying messages, providing a friendly face and reassurance, designing and producing newsletters and posters, social media and website, strategy planning, organising, running the foodbank and so much more… Thank you all!

 Thank you all #VolunteersWeek #HolmeValley

Matched Giving Appeal 2021 – now completed – thank you!

Stable Court dental surgery

Donated toothpaste and dental products. These little tubes of magic will help to keep all of our recipients healthy. What a difference you have made.Thank you so much.

DHB Healthcare

Thank you to DHB Healthcare for a generous donation of mouthwash to help support people’s oral health. Your kindness makes a difference.

Morrisons

Another generous donation from Morrisons including pasta and tinned food. We’d like to say a huge THANK YOU for helping us to support people in need in the #HolmeValley. Your donations have made such a difference when so many people need our support. THANK YOU

Wooldale

One of our wonderful volunteers, Philippa, dropped off more contributions, donated by the lovely people of Wooldale and collected by the hard-working,friendly staff at The Co-operative Food – Wooldale Road, Holmfirth. Thank you so much! You are helping so many people in these uncertain and challenging times.👏👏👏

Leeds Rhinos Foundation & Feeding Yorkshire Network

The Food Bank had a very special event this week… a delivery of food by Leeds Rhinos Foundation !

Through the Feeding West Yorkshire network, The Welcome Centre arranged a delivery of shortage food items to a number of food banks, including Home Valley Foodbank.

Food items delivered include cereals, fruit juices, cooking sauces and other delights! Great timing as we are helping more people than ever before.

The photo shows Leeds Rhinos with John, one of our own hard-working, heavy lifters.

A big THANK YOU to Leeds Rhinos and the The Welcome Centre for making this delivery of much needed items possible. You are real stars!

Bargain Booze Holmfirth

A big THANK YOU to everyone who has donated to the Food Bank this week, including those who have contributed to the collection point at Bargain Booze and to Bev (see photo) who delivered the food to us. We so appreciate your determination to shop🛒 for the Food Bank in these difficult times to provide hard-to-get foods.

We’re so appreciative of everyone who has given money too as this helps the Food Bank to buy critical provisions efficiently so we can provide balanced food bags – THANK YOU

Yorkshire Building Society Holmfirth

A big THANK YOU to the Holmfirth branch of  the Yorkshire Building Society for collecting donations for us with their Support the Community collecting point. We appreciate your help which enables us to support people in need in these uncertain times.

Netherton Brownies

The amazing Netherton Brownies spent a day packing bags in Meltham Morrisons to raise money for the food bank! Sounds like these stars had some fun with a scanner too! Kindness can be fun. Thank you so much. You rock !! 

The Postcard Inn Holmfirth

A huge THANK YOU for the trolley load of of food and the cash donations raised by Kevin and his team at The Postcard Inn, Holmfirth. Such donations make an enormous difference to the work of Food Bank Volunteers Holme Valley in supporting those in need. With very BEST WISHES to you and all of your wonderful customers

1st Holme Valley Scouts

LOOK! food galore from the 1st Holme Valley Scouts. THANK YOU for your support at this, our busiest time. You have helped to support those in need at Christmas  and we are hugely appreciative for your kind act. Many thanks to you and your families for your generosity. You are awesome!

Holmfirth Events

Lamb2Ewe

A huge THANK YOU to Tom & Jack of Lamb2Ewe Their fabulous marketing skills and generous raffle prizes along with their exceptional customers raised a meaty £81 for the Food Bank. We really appreciate your support, it helps us to help more people in need – thank ewe!

@OfficialHTSA

A HUGE THANK YOU to @officialhtsa  who held a 1919 commemorative event at Meltham Liberal Club  and raised £50 for the Food Bank selling Wembley Wizards programmes at face value. Your support makes really a difference to those in need. Thank you.

Chairman Liz & Treasurer Anne presented with a grant by One Community Longley Farm Fund! The cheque for £1,000 will support the costs of the seasonal bags and go towards leaner times ahead. The presentation was made by Katie of  @LongleyFarm  during an enjoyable event held at HolmfirthTech – a whole community effort! Thank you for your fantastic support.

Holme Valley North Labour Party

Thanks to Red Shed Theatre, Holme Valley North Labour Party, and Michael Pogson for raising funds for the Food Bank with an entertaining, powerful and thought provoking performance of “Peterloo : the past lives in the present”

Hepworth Junior and Infant School

Look at this fantastic collection of tinned meat and fish from Hepworth Junior & Infant School! THANK YOU so much for your donation which will help us to support people in need during the wet, windy and cold of January & February. Well done Hepworth!

Holme Junior & Infant School

Thanks to Holme Junior and Infant School pupils, families & staff. Your Reverse Advent Calendar donations were so lovely – they help us to help more people. Our volunteers, Anne & John, enjoyed your singing too! Many, many THANKS!

Honley CE Junior, Infant and Nursery School

What a pure act of kindness from a pupil at Honley CE Junior, Infant and Nursery School! This wonderful gift with its message about the box in the right of the first picture was donated by one small child from Honley Infants who had saved their pocket money over several weeks to buy food for those in need at Christmas time. Thank you – what a fantastic example for all of us to follow.

Kirklees Police

A huge THANK YOU to Kirklees Police Officers and Staff for their fabulous donation to the Food Bank before Christmas. Donations of food and drink were made instead of presents and cards being given to colleagues. As a result, a large volume of food was delivered to our store at Holme Valley Memorial Hospital. Our Chair, Liz, said on being told the delivery was being made, “I think I’m going to be overwhelmed!” and she was!

Inspector Graham Dyson of the Huddersfield NPT, said: “This was a fantastic idea to help people across the District. We know for a variety of reasons people can struggle to make ends meet, especially at this time of year and I was extremely proud and humbled to see the amount of contributions that were made. Kirklees Police officers are part of the community and we just want do our utmost to help and work with organisations to make Kirklees the best place possible.”

The scale of the donation was a terrific boost to volunteer morale and meant that everyone felt more confident that there would be sufficient stocks to supply bags to all in need at the busiest time of year. Thanks to everyone involved at Kirklees Police for their kind and thoughtful action.

Y’s Bar and Snap

A big, big THANK YOU to Y’s Bar & Snap Holmfirth and their generous customers for a marvellous cash donation. We really appreciate your support at this time of year as it means we can fill the “gaps” in our store cupboards.

Upperthong Junior & Infant School

Our volunteers Anne & John were invited to Upperthong Junior & Infant School to collect donations for the foodbank. Everyone at the school was so kind donating food for people in need in the Holme Valley. Thank you so much for caring.

Wooldale Preschool

See what happened when Liz and Anne went along to Harvest at Wooldale PreSchool! Thank you so much to all the children, their parents and staff! Your kindness and caring is really appreciated. The kindness of this lovely PreSchool helps us to help more people in need in the Holme Valley.

Netherthong Primary School

Just look at how much food has been donated by the children, their parents and the staff of Netherthong Primary School! When Liz, FBV Chair, and Anne, FBV Treasurer, went along to the Harvest Assembly, the children sang some uplifting harvest festival songs and a child from each year group was awarded a trophy for being especially helpful and caring. In response FBV Chair, Liz, took the helpful and caring theme, relating it to the work of the Holme Valley Foodbank. There was even some maths practice, as Anne encouraged the pupils to calculate how many individual items of food are packed each week, each month and annually! Children from year 6 helped pack everything into bags and carried these to the car. What a wonderful morning at such a wonderful school!

Take a look at these fab name badges! What do you think? Our lovely Food Bank volunteers will be easier to spot around the Holme Valley.

Thanks to Kerry for making these for us – we really appreciate it. 

Hade Edge Junior Infant and Nursery School

A huge thank you to the children, parents and staff at Hade Edge J.I and N School who donated their harvest collection to the Holme Valley FoodBank!

The staff had made a lovely display of the food and our local volunteer thanked them and explained where the food would go to and how it would be distributed. The children sang harvest songs and had made up a harvest poem. There were many parents and grandparents attending the assembly and they were very interested in what the foodbank was doing. One parent said, “ It’s good to know that the food can be used locally and I think it’s good that my son knows about these things.”

Mr Kilner, the Headteacher, also thanked all of the children, parents and the staff.

This is the second year that Hade Edge has donated their harvest food. We really appreciate your support. Thank you for your kindness and for caring about others.

Our volunteers and committee members who met on 26 September

We had a fabulous turnout at our AGM & business meeting! Huge thanks go to all our lovely volunteers for sharing their ideas & suggestions to develop the support we provide to people in need. Thanks to Kerry Sykes for capturing the spirit of the meeting in this pic too!

Our key challenges include: how could we manage if the need for our foodbank services increases? how could we manage if donations decrease?

We really value sustained support from individuals and groups in the Holme Valley. We absolutely could not help people who need our services without you. Thank you!

Ferocious Dog & Ken Bonsall at Holmfirth Picturedrome

A huge THANK YOU to Ken Bonsall, Ferocious Dog at the magnificent fans at Holmfirth Picturedrome  Your amazing generosity gave us 20 bags of food + cash. Thank you so much to all involved – what a fantastic result! Your kindness and caring is much appreciated. It helps us to help more people in these challenging times.

Great pic too of Ken with our fab volunteers Dee, Ed and Hilary! Thanks everyone for all your hard work.

All of our Volunteers

Thank you so much to all of our lovely volunteers. You collect, sort and distribute the kind #foodbank donations in the Holme Valley. What you give is so much more than time and skills. You give hope. You’re always there. Thank you ♥♥

Kingdom Coffee – coffee with a conscience

Our friends at Kingdom Coffee have made a very generous donation of coffee, tea, sugar and biscuits. These will be in great demand. We really appreciate the kindness and generosity shown by our friends at Kingdom Coffee. Kingdom Coffee is a Fairtrade and Ethical Coffee and Tea supplier who is committed to sustainability.

DHB Oral Healthcare

Our friends at DHB Oral Healthcare have been very generous and provided us with a much appreciated donation of toothbrushes and toothpaste. Our emergency food packs don’t just contain food – there are toiletries too. We really appreciate the kindness and generosity shown by our friends at DHB Oral Healthcare

BagItDontBinIt BIDBI

Our friends at BIDBI have provided us with a fab donation of eco-friendly cotton canvas bags. These are really great as a sustainable, fairly traded alternative to plastic carrier bags. They’ll be very useful for our emergency food packs. We really appreciate the kindness and generosity shown by our friends at BagItDontBinIt

Hepworth Junior and Infant School

After hearing about our shortages Hepworth Junior and Infants school set themselves a challenge to collect 100 litres of milk for the foodbank!

They even came along to help us to pack the foodbags. Fantastic job everyone!

Mr Mark Crouch, head teacher said, “We’re delighted to have doubled our target. The children & families have really got on board with the idea after hearing from the foodbank that milk was one of the most needed items.”

200 litres of milk will make a huge difference to the people we help. Thank you so much for your kindness and support.

AGM

A big thank you to everyone who came to the Food Bank AGM or who sent their apologies. We now have a Treasurer, Anne. Together with Chair Liz, Anne accomplished her first task of applying for a Locala grant resulting in a cheque for £1500 which will help with increasing shopping bills. Here are Liz, who collected the award before our AGM, and Anne celebrating success. Well done to you both!

The Postcard Inn Holmfirth

A massive thank you to all customers and staff at The Postcard Inn, Holmfirth, for supporting the Food Bank. The most recent collection resulted in £170.73, amassed between last September and now. In all, since 2015 The Postcard Inn has raised £694.04. Well done and thank you. Your action helps us rebalance our stocks so that much needed items can be added to Food Bags. In this way we can help those in need.

Holmfirth U3A and Hepworth Ladies group

Many, many THANKS to Holmfirth U3A and Hepworth Ladies Group, both of whom made generous donations to the Holme Valley Food Bank. Your gifts are much appreciated and will enable the Food Bank to continue to buy food and fill bags to help those who are in need.

Charlesworth’s

We’d like to say a huge THANK YOU to all holders of our collecting boxes and for our latest contribution from Charlesworth’s in Holmfirth and their customers. Without your generosity and team effort to raise £180.08 to date, we cannot help those in need.

Bon Chocolat

This week food bags have sweet treats thanks to Bon Chocolat, which has recently moved to Holmfirth. Huge thanks for supporting our foodbank and welcome to Holmfirth and the Holme Valley!

Longley Farm One Community Fund

A massive thank you to the One Community Longley Farm fund for the grant you awarded us. That helps us to provide more assistance to people in need of emergency food in the Holme Valley.

Smiles all round when Liz & Lorraine receive the cert from Katie Kemp

Christmas appeal

Thank you to all who donated food and money to the Foodbank in response to the Christmas appeal. Your donations enabled Holme Valley Foodbank to help many more people. In the week before Christmas, Christmas week and New Year’s week we gave out 93 standard bags and 46 Christmas bags. Bags were issued from Holmfirth Library and Holmfirth Methodist Church. Schools in the Holme Valley were also able to request food bags, and were pleased to receive 10 Christmas bags on request.

Donations started to flood in with Harvest Collections from many schools and churches, some of whom we have already named.

Towards Christmas, donations were received from businesses, organisations and individuals alike including:

Ramsdens LLP

Holme Valley Scouts

Swimbabes

The Net Church

Amazing Acapella Holmfirth

and so many individuals; we really are so very grateful to you all.

If we have missed anyone, please forgive us, and do please contact us to let us know.

Thanks to the kindness and generosity of our supporters, we have been so well provisioned that our Chair, Liz, said, “Our store is becoming well stocked for the coming weeks which means the support provided has not just helped our Christmas provision but will help to sustain our stock through the difficult winter months.”

Of course, demands on the Foodbank increased in 2018, and we anticipate that our help will be needed by even more people in 2019.

If you would like to host a collection point for us

for food donations, or a fundraising collection tin for cash donations,  please get in touch on 07534 855 332 and leave a message

The Boot and Shoe Inn at Scholes

Thank you to Debbie from the Boot and Shoe, at Scholes, who has delivered the first instalment of Christmas food collected by her regulars.

Delivered straight to Holme Valley Memorial Hospital, this marvellous donation will boost our food stocks ready for next week’s pack. A BIG, BIG thank you to Debbie and her loyal customers for their thoughtfulness and festive spirit.

Kirkroyds Infant School 

Thank you to the children, parents and the staff at Kirkroyds Infant School for your very generous harvest donation to the Holme Valley Foodbank. You have ensured that we can help more people our cupboards in yet another busy week!

Mrs Armitage, Deputy Head Teacher of Kirkroyds Infant School presented the Harvest Collection to Liz Hodgson, Chair of the Holme Valley Foodbank.

Mrs Louise Armitage, Deputy Head Teacher of Kirkroyds Infant School said:

“Our School’s community is very keen to support local charities. We want to help our children to feel that they can make a positive difference and to support their local community.”

The food donations will now go to our foodbank store at Locala at the Holme Valley Memorial Hospital, and then  distributed through our local foodbank outlets at Holmfirth Library and the Holmfirth Methodist Church.

Liz Hodgson, chair of the Foodbank, said: “We are very grateful for this kind donation. A big THANK YOU to Kirkroyds Infant School for this collection and your ongoing support!”

Upperthong Junior and Infant School

Staff, children and parents from Upperthong Junior & Infant School have made a very generous harvest donation to Holme Valley Foodbank. We are very grateful to everyone who helped, including Mr Carter who brought the donations down to the library for us.

A huge THANK YOU to Upperthong J & I pupils, staff & families – we are very grateful for your help & support

Scholes Junior and Infant School

Staff and pupils from Scholes Junior and Infant School visited Holme Valley FoodBank and helped with our weekly pack. Not only did they provide much needed help, they brought with them their harvest food collection as well a cash collection of £93.25. And they didn’t stop there…

the pupils helped us to add their food to our storage cupboards! It was great for the children to find out how their food collection is used to help others in their community. A huge THANK YOU to Scholes J & I pupils, staff & families – we are very grateful for your help & support

Hepworth J and I School and Holy Trinity Church, Hepworth 

The community of children, parents and staff at Hepworth J and I School and the parishioners of Holy Trinity Church Hepworth have made a very generous harvest donation to Holme Valley Foodbank and have replenished our cupboards in preparation for yet another busy week!

Hepworth J and I School have a collection box at the school and they regularly donate to the Foodbank and we are very grateful for all of these donations!

Mr Mark Crouch, Head Teacher of Hepworth J and I School said:

“Our School’s community of staff, pupils and teachers are keen to support local charities. We want to teach pupils how important it is to help others whenever possible and that being kind is the quality we value the most. It is lovely to see pupils fill the food bank box as they know they are doing something which can make a difference.”

A big THANK YOU to everyone at Hepworth J and I School and everyone at Holy Trinity Church!

Hade Edge Junior and Infant school

The children, parents and staff at Hade Edge J and I School have today donated their harvest collection of non perishable food to the Holme Valley Foodbank and have filled our cupboards!

The Head Teacher, Mr Jeff Kilner, and Mrs Lillis, Friends of Hade Edge School, show us the harvest donations!

Mr Kilner said, “We are so pleased with the generosity of our children and parents and glad that it can go for support locally. ”

Mrs Lillis said, “It’s good that the children can see where this is going and that they know what a food bank does.”

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who donated!

Netherthong Primary School

The children, parents and staff at Netherthong Primary School donated their Harvest Collection of non perishable food to the Holme Valley Foodbank Volunteers and have filled up our cupboards!

Jo Moran, Business Manager, showed us the extensive array of food whilst Headteacher, Miss Kelly, said, “We are pleased to support this community group and know that food is going to local families.

Back at the Food Bank the volunteers were pleased to see how full their shelves look! Hilary, Kath and Sheila are seen sorting donations and packing food bags ready for collection. A huge THANK YOU to everyone who donated.

Suma Wholefoods

Suma Wholefoods

Suma Wholefoods provided a massive 600 can organic soup donation!!! So welcome, especially when our shelves were empty! Thank you so much.

Suma Wholefoods is a large, independent, co-operative, wholefoods company based in Elland. Suma is a member-run organisation which collectively chooses to give substantial donations to charitable causes, often locally based, Suma products are high quality, wholesome and healthy – just what Holme Valley FoodBank Volunteers want to help anyone in need.

Bag it Don’t Bin It

We received large donation of eco-friendly cotton shopping bags  from Bag it Don’t Bin It Ltd That allows us to reduce the number of plastic carrier bags we use when we provide foodbags. The bags are made using environmentally friendly materials, sourced from a sustainable supply chain that doesn’t compromise the welfare of its workers.  Good for everyone! Thank you so much to BIDBI!

DHB Oral Healthcare

DHB Oral Healthcare

Whilst most of our assistance is in the form of food bags, we also offer toiletries when they are required. We were really pleased to receive a lovely donation of toothbrushes and we shared some with our friends at The Welcome Centre Foodbank and more  Since 1978 DHB has been a leading supplier of oral hygiene products to dental practices across the UK and Ireland. A big thank you to DHB Oral Healthcare!

Holmfirth Co-op

In June, Holmfirth Co-op made a generous donation of Fairtrade cotton shopping bags, a great help as our supplier of Holmfirth green bags had just come to the end of their stocks. A big THANK YOU to Holmfirth Co-op, where we also have a collecting point for donations.

A huge thanks from all of us at Holme Valley Foodbank to everyone who supports us.

Updated 19 September 2022

Holme Valley Foodbank | Holmfirth