A charity will collect Christmas gifts for struggling households across Salford.
Wood Street Mission has been an ongoing process of giving Christmas gifts for the past 150 years, but the Coronavirus pandemic has had a negative effect on their plans.
The charity helps low-income families in Salford and Manchester to meet day-to-day living costs.
‘Family basics’ includes providing struggling families with children’s clothes, bedding, baby equipment, toys and books which they believe is important for children’s wellbeing and development.
They also engage in helping families putting their children through education with the costs of going to school using their SmartStart scheme and run holiday book clubs to promote reading and improve children’s literacy.
Wood Street Mission state on their website: “Not once, even through world wars and recessions, has Wood Street Mission failed to fulfil its Christmas appeal. However, the ongoing Covid-19 crisis threw the project into doubt for the first time this year.
Social-distancing guidelines and limited space at the charity’s home on Wood Street mean that the building is unable to house the amount of people and donations necessary to make the Christmas Appeal possible.”
Behind the scenes over at @GNWManchester #WoodStXmas #Manchester #Salford #Poverty pic.twitter.com/im6LOiKYj4
— Wood Street Mission (@WoodSt_Mission) November 27, 2020
With the use of warehouse facilities in Manchester they are organising and sorting all the donation they’ve received. The website states that second hand items are currently not accepted due to the Covid-19 situation.
This placed extra stress on Wood Street Mission in getting presents because everything was gained through donations and appeals on social media.
With only 9 people working in the warehouse it became difficult to rise to the occasion for them. In 2019 Wood Street had provided over 11,000 toys to 4,000 kids in Salford and Manchester.
This year over 1,500 families are receiving gifts over the festive season with the hopes that lockdown won’t ruin their Christmas.
The charity is still looking for presents of different age ranges have a variety of dedicated presents.
They said that the age range they lack the most in acquiring is the 9-11 year olds.
Visit their website for more information.
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