Generous staff at Safapac have given up their Christmas gifts this year in favour of a giant food parcel for Peterborough Soup Kitchen.
Instead of opting for a turkey or a Christmas bottle from their employer, a large proportion of staff at Safapac in Orton Southgate decided the money used to buy their gifts should actually go to a more deserving cause this year.
Bosses at the Peterborough chemical manufacturing and packaging company also ditched the usual investment in Christmas boxes for customers and instead pooled the money into the charity pot.
The result was a hefty sum of cash which turned into a giant food delivery for Peterborough Soup Kitchen.
“We rang the soup kitchen team and asked what they needed, they gave us a shopping list and then we did a massive online shop,” explained Caroline Rees, HR Manager at Safapac.
Soup kitchen drivers arrived last week to collect the shopping haul which included
390 cans of sandwich fillings, 30 boxes of sugar cubes, 145 packets of biscuits, 90 boxes of mince pies and apple pies, and 144 bags of fresh fruit.
“We wanted to support a truly local charity,” explained Caroline. “The soup kitchen team said this food will last for a couple of weeks which we hope will be a real help over the Christmas period.”
Local business generosity didn’t stop there though. Safapac got in touch with its contacts at Masteroast and the Peterborough-based coffee roaster donated tea and coffee for the Christmas period.
But this will not just be a Christmas gesture, according to Andy Fawkes, MD at the Newark Road company, who added: “The soup kitchen and all the volunteers do an amazing job for such an important service in the city. We have now agreed to provide them with tea and coffee for the forseeable future.”
