Banbury car and bike enthusiasts aim to provide 500 food parcels for people this Christmas

The organisers of the monthly Banbury Car and Bike Meet have joined forces with Prabhu Natarajan of The Lunch Box Project to help struggling families and residents this Christmas.

After last year’s inaugural food drive, the partnership managed to raise over £4,000, which provided around 300 food parcels, as well as six months worth of fruit for the Chasewell Playgroup and ongoing food parcels for families struggling with the cost of living.

Rowan Ridley, organiser of the Banbury Car and Bike Meet, said: “This is something run jointly between myself on behalf of Banbury Car and Bike Meet and Prabhu Natarajan on behalf of The Lunch Box Project.

"It started last year after a chance encounter where Prabhu agreed to find those in need of support and I agreed to do the fundraising, as a way of the local car and bike community giving back to the wider community and as a thank you for the support we get for our events.”

This year, they plan to go bigger and raise enough money to provide 500 Christmas food parcels, including Christmas foods such as mince pies, Christmas pudding, and Christmas cake, as well as non-perishable foods like pasta, rice, and tinned foods.

The food parcels will be shared among a number of community organisations, schools, and charities in Banbury to be given to those in need.

Rowan added: “When we have engaged with community leaders and organisations, we have discovered that things have become so costly that even emergency workers and teachers are using food banks.

"We have reached out to local schools, community centres, food banks, and other charities to ask them to nominate families that they feel need support the most, and after one week, over 60% of the 500 were spoken for, which shows how high the need is!”

The organisers of the food drive are hoping to receive support from the local community and businesses and have set up a JustGiving page where people can donate to the cause.

For more information, visit https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/Christmas-food-parcels?utm_term=QpjqVQX96