An East Kilbride street came together to help those less fortunate with a collection for an East Kilbride food bank.
The residents of Campsie Road in Lindsayfield donated nearly a dozen large bags of food and toiletries – 264 items in total – to East Kilbride Community Food Bank.
Fiona Thomas organised the collection – with the help of husband Chris and son Logan – and it turned out to be a roaring success.
She told the News : “It all began with the Thursday night clapping which really brought the street together and we made a bit of an event of it.
“I didn’t want to lose that community spirit so created a Facebook page.
“I then went out a few weeks ago and put a note through everyone’s door asking them to join and got a great response.
“I work for Sky and our engineers did a lot of community work through lockdown and I thought it would be lovely and rewarding if we all did something.
“We decided on the idea of making a donation to people less fortunate than ourselves who worry about feeding themselves and their children - especially at Christmas.
“It got so much support and I put out a couple of small bins for neighbours to leave donations.
“I ended up having to empty the bins five times over there was so much stuff – it was absolutely incredible and I was overwhelmed by everyone’s generosity.”
Fiona added: “I handed in nine large bags for life full of food and toiletries into the food bank and have another three sitting I need to drop-off.
“It’s lovely that the street has really made a big effort.”
The event proved such a success that they are looking to buy some large bins and do collections on a more regular basis and have cash which they will donate to a charity chosen by the street.
And at the weekend they also held their very own socially distanced light switch-on – with some extra special guests.
Anna and Elsa from Frozen, Spiderman and the main man himself – Santa – and his elves who were distributing selection boxes.
Karen Dornan from EK Community Food Bank said: “We are so thankful to all the residents involved in the collection for their generosity and thoughtfulness especially at this time of year.
“We have been overwhelmed by the generosity of the community in East Kilbride this year, we always receive amazing support but so many streets, businesses, schools and individuals have gone above and beyond.
“Many not buying gifts but using the money instead to support and bless those in our community who are struggling more than ever this year. A massive heartfelt thank you to everyone who has supported us, we couldn’t do it without your invaluable support.”
