Wathalls Teams Up With Hope Centre for Easter Egg Appeal
Funeral directors G Wathall & Son Ltd has launched its annual Easter egg appeal to support the foodbank, which is one of the services offered at Derby’s Hope Centre.
The family-owned firm will be collecting chocolate eggs donated by members of the public, local businesses, staff, family and friends. Donations can be collected at the firm’s offices in Macklin Street in Derby’s St Peters Quarter and at Union Street in Ashbourne and then delivered to the Hope Centre in Curzon Street.
Helen Wathall, Managing Director of G.Wathall & Son Ltd explained: “As a long-established family business, we are very much part of our local communities in Derby and Ashbourne and try and support worthwhile causes whenever we can. “This is the fifth annual Easter Egg appeal that we have organised and choose a different organisation each year to support. “Previous recipient organisations have included Rainbows children’s hospice and Derbyshire Children’s Holiday Centre and we decided to support the Hope Centre this year after hearing about the increased demand on food bank resources there. “We can’t do this without the generosity of people in Derby and I hope that we can exceed last year’s total of 181 chocolate eggs. This will ensure that as many families as possible have a welcome treat this Easter.”
More than 50 agencies across the city currently work with Hope Centre – issuing vouchers to those in need of food parcels. Hope Centre Manager Paul Brookhouse continued: “The need for the foodbank is growing all the time. “Last year more than 6,000 mouths were fed through the service and in the first eight weeks of this year alone we have distributed 82 three-day food parcels per week, which is well up on the same time last year. “Individuals and families are referred to us for a number of reasons including those fleeing domestic violence, losing their jobs through redundancy, delayed benefit payments, low pay, homelessness and people seeking asylum amongst other difficult circumstances. “A particularly worrying trend is that a third of people fed through food parcels are under 16. Therefore, there are a lot of children who, this year, would not receive an Easter egg as sociable food items are the first things to go when a family faces severe financial difficulties. “We are extremely grateful to Wathalls for choosing us as recipients for this year’s appeal and I am sure that many families in the Derby area will be very appreciative of this support.”
For more information please visit www.wathalls.co.uk or call G Wathall & Son Ltd on 01332 345268.