The run up to Christmas is always a busy time for us here at FareShare Greater Manchester, making sure all our Community Food Members have the stock they need to get them through the festive period, but there’s always an extra bit of work which comes our way at this time of year.
Each year, the Buckingham Emergency Food Appeal, or BEFA for short, drops off food for additional North West charities who are catering for those in need at Christmas. Our Openshaw warehouse is the BEFA hub for this part of the world each December – something we have been doing for more than a decade.
BEFA first began 39 years ago after founder and farmer, Mike Buckingham, took his children to the theatre in central London. On the trip, they saw homeless people sleeping under Waterloo Bridge and learned that they were going to be served Christmas dinner at the homeless charity Crisis. Mike went to Crisis, said he was a farmer and asked what he could do to help with the Christmas meal.
That first year, they collected £750 worth of food, put it onto a lorry and took it to London to support the Crisis Christmas dinner. The Buckingham Emergency Food Appeal was born and has been going ever since.
BEFA in the North West
Over the years, the BEFA operation has grown from just serving central London and uses FareShare Greater Manchester as a hub for charities in the North West of England. This year, BEFA is hoping to support 200 charities, many of whom are supporting people who are homeless and vulnerable.
Last week, we distributed food to 46 North West charities and community groups thanks to the BEFA food delivery which included turkeys, vegetables, Christmas puddings, & other food stuffs too.
We couldn’t have managed the BEFA redistribution this year without our brilliant corporate volunteers from Garic and Hive Projects. They were brilliant – thank you so much guys!
You can find out more about the Buckingham Emergency Food Project here.
