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The Porch - Christmas & Winter Fundraiser
Oxford, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
Aim
The Porch provides a warm, dry and safe place for 100s of vulnerable people each winter - please help us meet the rising costs of this work.
Many of you know the Porch already …
We’ve been providing freshly cooked meals, showers, laundry and a wide range of support to homeless and vulnerably housed people in Oxford for over 35 years - totally free! We’re proud to be part of a network of crucial agencies in the City but we’re unique in providing cooked lunches, showers and all of our services under one roof.
With the worst of Covid hopefully behind us, we’re delighted to be running our full set of employment, tenancy and health activities indoors once again.
Every Christmas, we provide Christmas lunches and presents at our safe and welcoming venue. This year we have blankets, hot water bottles, thermos flasks and torches to add to food hampers chosen by each of the Porch members.
Why we need you… our Christmas & Winter Challenge
Demand keeps growing and we are seeing many new faces visit us at the Porch – we served 248 separate people in the last 3 months! We know this relates to the cost-of-living crisis so we want to extend our service and ensure our members can benefit from a warm and safe place throughout the entire day.
We are now providing breakfasts and extending our hours - helping the members to use the centre as a place to stay warm, get dry, use hot water, rest their feet, do their laundry and recharge their phones at our charging bank.
Unfortunately, the everyday running costs required to keep the service open and active to the members from 9:00am to 3:30pm are increasing rapidly and we expect that our annual gas and electricity costs will double by Spring 2023.
This year we want our Christmas and Winter campaign to support the quality and quantity of our service over the most challenging time of the year. Your donations will help us meet the cost of Heating and Eating!
For example:
- £5 will provide a freshly cooked, hot and nutritious lunch
- £10 will provide an hour of heating and electricity costs
- £20 will provide a laundry wash and tumble dry for 4 of our members
We will continue to provide a vibrant and welcoming day centre this winter - please help us if you can.
Happy Christmas!
The Porch Team
Click here for more about the work of The Porch
Aviva Cost of Living Boost has provided £14,182 of match funding
Co-op Warm Spaces Funding Boost has provided £5,500 of match funding
Aviva Community Fund has provided £349 of match funding
Aviva Employee Giving has provided £160 of match funding
This project successfully funded on 18th January 2023