Trustees annual report ending March 2023
Foodbank
We continue to support the local community meeting the challenge of the current economic difficulties that many in our community are facing.
This involved Providing a warm space – a place to meet, keep warm and socialise and enjoy a chat over a cup of tea!
Food parcels – our Food Bank continues to distribute Food parcels to families, the lonely and older people. In this year we will have distributed over 6,000 food hampers.
We have continued our partnership with our local Lidl; who have provided us with much needed supplies as well as being supported by Lidl and Aldi stores around the local area. We have also been able to connect with other local supermarkets, Tesco and the Co-Op. There are a couple of local schools and bakeries that also provide supplies to the foodbank.
Harvest Festivals were hosted at many of our local Schools in which we attended to offer ministry and to receive foods donated by the parents.
Our local High School did some fund-raising events and raised finances and donated lots of foods too! The Pastor was invited into the school to talk about the Food Bank and the help it offers to those who are struggling.
We continued with our Christmas Joy Appeal this year co-ordinating Christmas presents for needy children. It is a time consuming and very busy time yet very rewarding. This year over 2000 presents were sent out. We also sent out Festive Food Hampers around 160 were distributed on Christmas Eve, with a host of volunteers helping collect, pack and deliver them all out.
Ultimate Kids
Our Soft Play Centre continues to draw families together and is still very popular. It contributes to the financial running of the whole work of the church too. We have two part time workers. Our parties continue to be popular.
At Christmas we did a couple of Tea Times with Santa that brought in lots of children and families.
Church
We continue to run church services every Sunday morning and Wednesday evening. We had some special services at Easter in which we incorporated an ‘Easter Egg Hunt’ and gave Easter related gifts to attendees. We ran two carol services at Christmas, having the honour of hosting the Parish Chairman’s Carol service where many dignitaries and guests were present.
Services continue to be regularly attended and we continue to see visitors and new people joining us.
On the first Sunday of each month we have hosted social nights, where local families can come into the church and have fun, playing an array of different games with food available. Movies continue to be popular and we showed several during the darker nights.
We had summer church outings including a picnic and a trip to bowling. Our Ladies also joined in with Destiny Church in Wakefield for their Ladies Breakfast.
This year as not been without its challenges – the cost of living and the everincreasing utility charges have had a big impact on our finances. We continually look for grant help and funding opportunities to help us meet and keep our ministries going.
Overall, we have enjoyed a successful and fruitful year and continue to look for ways of reaching people in our community to develop relationships and increase the awareness of who we are and why God has placed us here.