Help us to feed 5,000 people in need this Christmas
| Maya’s Food Banks are going to be open all Christmas Holidays , every single day, even Christmas Day providing food for struggling families throughout whole Canterbury District and more ! Thanks to big discounts and donations from our food partners each meal we give away will cost us only £5 (including running costs). | ||
 | You can sponsor 1 person by donating £5 only | |
| If you are a business you can donate to feed between 100 to 500 people or more. This will cost you between £500 to £2,500 or more | ||
Did you know our food bank is proud that in the last 12 months we have provided 213,890 meals to financially struggling families (30% of these were kids)
With your support no local kids or elderly will go hungry this Christmas!
How you can Donate
The best way to make payments to us is via Bank Transfer with the reference “Spread The Love”. If you have any questions or queries regarding how to sponsor or support this campaign please email maya@mayas.org.uk or call 07368122419.
Bank Details
| Name : | Mayas Community CIC |
| Bank : | Metrobank |
| Account Number : | 4 7 6 0 9 7 2 0 |
| Sort Code : | 2 3 – 0 5 – 8 0 |
| Reference : | Spread The Love |
Please make any cheques out to Mayas Community CIC, we have some giant blank cheques available for video , photo and social media posts to thank our sponsors for spreading love and kindness at Christmas.
What is The Maya's feed 5,000 Christmas Campaign
December 2022 Maya had such a large demand from the community for food it was overwhelming. She went to the sea front of Herne Bay and make an emotional plea for help.
https://www.facebook.com/100049765148219/videos/840538633664420/
The community and local businesses answered, bringing bags and bags of food over the next few weeks. Several businesses brought van loads of food and one sponsored our first Christmas Ingredient Give Away feeding over 200 families in one day.
Since that time sadly the demand for help over Christmas has grown. If you are struggling financially the Christmas period is a nightmare as you try to balance your house finances, provide for your family and give them a warm and enjoyable celebration. With no where else to turn, the first Christmas we were open as an organisation 100s of people contacted Maya for help.
Throughout the year we collect Christmas gifts for all ages, one of our volunteers meticulously plans this ready for December. You can visit the community cafe from 15-24th December and get access to free gifts (for children and adults alike). Maya and her team believe that no one should go without at Christmas.
This year as we have seen demand growing in the 10 food banks we run each week (we have fed over 50,000 mouths , 213,890 meals in the last twelve months) all from a very limited budget. This year during the Christmas period we want to feed 5,000 people across the Canterbury district. Last year a local taxi firm kindly gave up their time at our event delivering food parcels to those who couldn’t leave their homes.
On the 25th December Maya has always opened her doors to the community for anyone who is going to be alone or isolated for whatever reason they are always welcome at Maya’s. Maya and her volunteers prepare a traditional Christmas dinner and have a number of volunteers on hand to deliver hot food to anyone who can’t make it down to us.
What / Where and When
What | Where | When |
| Long Life Food Parcels | Community Cafe (20 High Street, Herne Bay, CT6 5LH) | 2pm – 3pm |
| Fresh Supermarket Food Bank | Community Cafe (20 High Street, Herne Bay, CT6 5LH) | 9pm 365 days a year |
| Canterbury Food Bank (Fresh Supermarket Food Bank) | City Space, 47 Northgate, Canterbury, CT1 1BE | 6pm every Sunday (e.g.15th, 22nd, 29th December) |
| Daily Emergency Food Parcels for the most vulnerable | Available for collection from Community Cafe or delivered | Available on request |
| Christmas Dinner Ingredients giveaway | To be announced | 23rd December 10am – 5pm |
| Christmas Eve big supermarket surplus food giveaway | Several mobile locations throughout the whole Canterbury district to be announced soon and Community Cafe (20 High Street, Herne Bay, CT6 5LH) | 24th December 4pm until midnight |
| Christmas Dinner | Community Cafe (20 High Street, Herne Bay , CT6 5LH) | 25th December 11.30am – 3pm |
| Christmas Dinner at home (for housebound) | Delivery available on request | 25th December 11am – 2pm |
| Emergency Christmas Gifts Table | Community Cafe (20 High Street, Herne Bay, CT6 5LH) | 15th – 25th December 12 – 2pm |
Previous Years Christmas Ingredients events
Maya’s Christmas Dinner Ingredients giveaway started December 2022. During the height of the cost of living crisis many families were faced with rising mortgage / rent costs and heating bills which were all increasing faster than wages or benefits increases. This left many families in a really challenging situation and with Christmas approaching had to choose between not giving their children a celebration on Christmas Day or getting into debt. Maya found local businesses were happy to sponsor ingredients and three days before Christmas she arranged for over 400 families to receive everything they would need on Christmas Day, such as; vegetables , meat, gravy, stuffing, mince pies, christmas pudding. Since then this has become an annual event feeding more people each year, local taxi companies joined the throng of volunteers helping Maya. to give out the food. They drove food parcels locally to those who couldn’t get out of the house , making sure that no one who needed our support was left hungry on Christmas Day.
Maya also believes that no one should be lonely on Christmas Day. The Community Cafe is open every Christmas Day to provide a free Christmas dinner for anyone that would like to celebrate with others.
This wonderful event only works because of the generosity of local businesses and our volunteers (who give up many hours of their time to help prepare and distribute food to such a large amount of people on one day). If you would like to be involved please Click Here to Contact Us
Who is Supporting the Campaign
Thank you to our kind sponsors without which this event wouldn’t be possible. As sponsorship is received their details (logo / website etc) will be displayed in this section