A welcome gift of seasonal cheer was delivered by the volunteers at Money Matters this week, thanks to funding from the Wesleyan Foundation via Leicestershire and Rutland Community Foundation.
Money Matters clients received a Christmas food bag or vouchers, with a recipe booklet, featuring some healthy meals from Jack Monroe’s Cooking on a Bootstrap and a personal card from their advisor.
Based in Westcotes, Money Matters offer free specialist debt advice and other support.
Centre manager, Nina de Salis Young, said, “We are definitely seeing an increase in people struggling to buy even basic essentials such as food.
“We had a wonderful response and people were overwhelmed that we would do something like this. We’re so pleased that Wesleyan and the Community Foundation could back us for this project.”
One of their clients commented: “I’ve had to go on universal credit and I have no money for food, thank you.” And this was the situation for several of the recipients.
The volunteers received many messages of thanks:
“Thank you for your time and effort in delivering this. Hugely appreciated.”
“Thank you so much for the supermarket voucher too. I thought it would be money off vouchers. I didn’t realise it was a loaded gift card. Merry Christmas to you all.”
“Words alone cannot express my gratitude to you and your organisation. For me personally it has been the most awful year. It has taught me very valuable lessons. I believe you all literally must have hearts of gold to do what you do. Your kindness and empathy has no bounds. My news is I have sold my house and will be downsizing. Sad as this is, it is also a relief as I need to move forward with my life now.”
Wesleyan Foundation: we are all about you.
