A number of SA and NT families experiencing crisis and disadvantage will have a merrier Christmas, thanks to more than 800 food and gift hampers distributed by Lutheran Care.
Lutheran Care’s Tanunda and Blair Athol sites a total of 600 hampers were given away plus more than 1000 gifts. A further 130 hampers were allocated to clients of Lutheran Care’s Toward Home homelessness programs, and 90 were sent to families in Central Australian Aboriginal communities serviced by Lutheran Care.
The Christmas hampers were packed full of festive foods such as Christmas pudding, shortbread biscuits, chocolates, lollies and snacks, and some long-life pantry staples to go into a festive meal. Hamper recipients were also provided with age-appropriate new and unopened gifts for children. A Christmas ham was offered with each hamper, and where recipients do not eat ham, this was offered to another client in need.
In a scene reminiscent of Santa’s workshop, the toys earmarked for children and young people could barely fit in our Lutheran Care offices. The gifts included dozens of new lego kits made available through our partnership with philanthropic matchmaking service Good360, to wooden toys, puzzles, picture books, colouring books and pencils, and much more. Whilst we run the Christmas Hamper program each year, many of our team remarked that this was the biggest volume of gifts to be shared.
Families had to pre-register for a hamper and with a limited supply registrations filling out extremely quickly. Many recipients are already clients of Lutheran Care’s Emergency Relief program, and others were referred by local services in the community.
With government funding unavailable for this program, the hampers are made possible because of generous donations of funds and goods to Lutheran Care through our Appeals and directly to us from businesses, church congregations, schools, and the community.
Lutheran Care is grateful to our supporters for assisting with the Christmas Hamper program, including many volunteers who gave their time and effort to pack, sort and distribute the hampers and gifts. A number of businesses across the Barossa acted as donation points for goods; a big thanks to The Vine Inn, Terry White Angaston, the Co-op Nuriootpa and Yalumba.
Special thanks to St John’s Lutheran School Eudunda, Light Pass Primary School and the Kids Unite Wishing Tree, for helping with our donation drive, and St Petri Lutheran Church volunteers for assisting with the packing.
Our Barossa Hampers and toys were blessed by Pastor Adrian Kitson from St Petri, whilst the Blair Athol hampers were blessed this week by Bishop Andrew Brook. Thank you.
With Christmas being a stressful time for many families both emotionally and financially, we feel blessed to have such fantastic community support to make this time easier and more joyful for some within the community.
For anyone who would like to assist Lutheran Care to make a difference in vulnerable people’s lives in 2024, we encourage you to make a donation to the current Christmas Appeal. To make an online donation today, please click here.
To find out about how we help families in crisis, like our client Cathy* and her children, please click here, to get an understanding of the work your donation will support.