Cottage Centre: Fifers urged to dig deep for festive appeal

The charity is aiming to raise £45,000 in just 45 days to help families struggling this Christmas by providing a ten-day survival pack of food, gifts to open and help with the cost of heating to tide them over the festive period when many frontline agencies are closed.

The cost of living crisis continues to impact on many families across the Kingdom and this year is the charity’s biggest appeal to date – they don’t want to let anyone down.

The team of volunteers are determined to be able to help all those in need this year – but to do so they need your help.

As we prepare to enter December and just 22 days until the Cottage’s big delivery day on the 22nd, the appeal is less than half way to its £45k monetary target.

Pauline Buchan, Cottage Centre manager, said: “We have just 22 days left until delivery day and we aren’t yet at the half way point of our fundraising target of £45,000 which we use to provide food, utilities and other essential items to those families in significant hardship and facing unimaginable life challenges so we can’t stress enough how much we need your help.

"We have now processed referrals for over 1000 children and families to date and there is absolutely no way we will be able to meet their needs this Christmas without all of you supporting us to do so.

"With temperatures continuing to fall, we don’t want any family in our communities sitting without heating, electricity, food or wee ones waking up on Christmas without presents from Santa, so please get behind us and support us if you can in any way you can.

"To everyone who has donated in the past few days thank you all so much, the difference your support makes is appreciated so much by all of us.”

The team need an increasing amount of monetary donations each year to allow them to buy the food required for the survival packs and also to provide families with the ability to pay for utilities such as heating and electricity and this year’s appeal has been described as “our biggest challenge yet” by Cottage Centre manager, Pauline Buchan.

The Cottage Centre’s festive appeal started in 2010 when it support around 100 families. Now it helps around 2000 people. All the money donated will go to making up the survival packs which include essentials as well as some toys for children.

Pauline added: “So many people are in dire straits. They come to us having gone everywhere for help – this is their last gasp.

"We are appealing to the community to help us help people who have nothing.”

> Donations of money can be made via bank transfer to the Cottage Centre - sort code 80-16-84, account number: 06006462