Gloucester Charities is a registered charity in NSW and was established in 1996 to ensure that no person in the Gloucester district will go without food.

Every year they put together Christmas Hampers and this year is no exception.

Times have been tough this year with rising fuel and electricity costs which means that the extra food that makes Christmas special would not be possible for many of these people if they did not get their Christmas hamper. 

The amount of physical goods in the hampers has decreased as they were getting rather heavy and it was decided that vouchers would be easier to pack and provide greater value to the recipients.

This year the hampers include vouchers for meat from Darryl’s Butchers, loaf of bread from Hebby’s, an IGA gift card, ice cream from IGA, barbecue chicken from IGA as well as a tinned ham, homemade Christmas pudding (purchased from QUOTA), long life custard, Christmas lollies, packet of biscuits, chips and  cordial. With the gift card people can buy what they want rather than what the volunteers in Gloucester Charities think they would like.

It costs thousands of dollars to put together the Christmas hampers.

Many more thousands of dollars is distributed each year via food, petrol and pharmaceutical emergency vouchers, emergency travel and emergency overnight accommodation.

Gloucester Charities have also donated funds to the Neighbourhood Centre and support for others. No cash handouts are given.

All of these funds are raised from the sale of books, DVDs and CDs at the old Scout Hall Book Sale in Church Street Gloucester.

Gloucester Charities would like to thank everyone who has donated books to the Scout Hall Bookstore, the customers who purchased them, the volunteers who work tirelessly to keep the bookstore operating seven days a week and MidCoast Council for the use of the Scout Hall.

They wish everyone in our local community a happy, safe and joyous Christmas season.