December 2024

In this month's issue, we are reflecting on Christmas, sharing opening hours, trees, wellbeing, celebrating our fantastic volunteers and appealing for tech savvy volunteers aged 16+ to help us with a new project.

Merry Christmas!

Dear Dominique,

Everyone here at Hope Nottingham would like to wish you a very happy Christmas. This season is a time when we are reminded of the hope of the Christmas story - the birth of Jesus, also called Immanuel (Old Testament) and Emmanuel (New Testament) meaning "God with us". We hope you and all those you love, are blessed with His peace and joy this Christmas time.

However, we know for some, Christmas can be a difficult, challenging or even painful time of year. Many of those we serve face hardships - financial, emotional or practical. Your continued prayers and generosity help us shine much-needed Hope into the lives of those who are struggling.

Whatever your Christmas looks like, we want to thank you for your support as we continue to 'Inspire and Grow Communities of Hope' into 2025.

"Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David, a Saviour has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord"



Luke 2:10-11



Trees of Christmas Hope!

Several of our food bank teams have been getting creative decorating trees for Christmas Tree festivals at their local churches. As well as looking very festive, they have been a great opportunity to raise awareness of and start conversations about our local food banks.

The fantastic team at Wollaton Food Bank created this wonderful foodbank themed tree for the Christmas Tree Festival at Grangewood Methodist Church home to the food bank.

Grangewood, with support from other Wollaton Churches have hosted our Wollaton food bank since 2013 - providing much needed care and support to local people.

Over at Inham Nook, our Chilwell Food Bank team put together this tree for the St Barnabas Church Christmas Tree Festival.

Operating since 2012, Chilwell was our second food bank to open and their dedicated volunteers have been supporting local people ever since. We have been delighted to support the team at St Barnabas to develop their Hope community hub to offer even more to help to local residents.

Hope Nottingham also decorated a tree for the Christmas tree festival at St John's Parish Church in Beeston - who are regular donors to our Beeston Food Bank. Our Hope tree included baubles to represent each of our 14 food banks across greater Nottingham. You can read more about them and the great work they do here.

A HUGE thank you to all our supporters!

We have been truly blessed this winter with help and support from so many people, schools, churches, businesses, and other organisations that it would take several newsletters worth of space to name them all individually!

So to all the local residents organising street collections, the schools and churches collecting at carol concerts, fairs and assemblies, businesses giving up time to volunteer sorting donations, companies donating money to buy food, supporters who helped with Tesco collections, shops and offices hosting food bank collection boxes, local people donating to mark significant birthdays, families doing reverse advent calendars and to every single person who has donated an item in a supermarket, we want to say a genuine and heartfelt thank you.

We wouldn't be able to do what we do without your generosity, time and support. We look forward to continuing to work with you all in 2025!

Wishing all our volunteers a very Merry Christmas

Hope Nottingham has a dedicated army of over 370 volunteers who give up their time and energy to help people in local communities right across Nottingham. To everyone who has dated tins, stacked shelves, packed food parcels, served teas and coffees, cooked breakfasts, offered listening ears, served community meals, washed up mugs, driven the van, weeded the allotment, answered the phone, weighed in donations, helped with the admin, supported our community groups and so, so many other tasks, THANK YOU!

We hope all our volunteers have a well-earned rest over Christmas - but want to say a special thank you to those who are keeping our food banks open over Christmas and New Year. You can see our Christmas opening times here.

Wellbeing support this Christmas

Whilst for many Christmas is a time of excitement and celebration, we recognise it can also be a particularly difficult time of year. For those struggling with their mental wellbeing, experiencing physical illness, dealing with difficult family circumstances or coping with bereavement, Christmas can be especially tough.

We also know this has included plenty of our dear friends, guests and volunteers - and we want each and everyone of them, who have been touched by challenges and especially those facing Christmas without loved ones, that we will be thinking of and praying for them at this time.

If you are struggling and need support or someone to talk to over the Christmas period, you can find details of support services here.

Looking for a volunteering opportunity in 2025?

At the heart of all we do, we are hugely grateful for the time, effort and commitment our volunteers give in helping others in our communities across Nottingham. We really want to better support them with a big volunteering and training project in 2025, so are urgently hunting for Digital Media Volunteers to help create engaging animated video based training for a new volunteer portal. We will provide the content we just need tech savvy volunteers aged 16+ who will quickly pick up the animation tool we have available to bring the training to life! Volunteering in Beeston, or from home, with hours entirely to suit you, please get in touch here to find out more!

We are also currently looking for enthusiastic individuals to join our Cafe and Food Bank teams at our Aspley food bank, as well as any artistic individuals to help run a new Art & Craft group at our Beeston hub.

You can find out about more about these and our other current volunteer vacancies on our Volunteering webpage.

Gifts of Hope

It's not too late to purchase one of our virtual Gifts of Hope! Our gifts are a great way of supporting the work we do in local communities. Whether covering the cost of a food parcel at one of our 14 food banks or providing a free breakfast for a family in need in our community cafes, your gift directly helps Hope Nottingham provide love, care, compassion and practical help right across Nottingham.

Available at a range of different prices from £5 to £50, all gifts come with a downloadable certificate to give or send to the recipient.

You can find out more and purchase the gifts via our website.

Christmas reflections...

This month's reflection comes from Lauren Bailey, our Chaplain, who reflects on journeying with hope this Christmas. You can read the reflection here.

Wishing you all a peaceful and hope-filled Christmas,

From the Hope Nottingham team

Hope Nottingham | 0303 040 1110 | www.hope-nottingham.org.uk