Almost 300 liters of fresh tomato, vegetable, mustard and chicken soup for the Food Bank, along with a truckload of non-perishable groceries. That is the result of the Christmas spirit of Albert Lubbelinkhof and Raimond Rolleman from Coevorden. They organized a fundraiser to offer food bank customers something extra during the holiday season.
Supermarkets, butchers, sports clubs and other organizations were happy to contribute, as were many ordinary Coevorden residents. So Lubbelinkhof and Rolleman were able to put together a complete ‘Christmas package’. Because the food bank in Coevorden has its issue every two weeks on Thursday morning, customers will therefore receive a ‘New Year’s Eve package’ today.
“Two years ago we held a benefit campaign for the catering industry,” says Rolleman. “We have reached many people with this and we wanted to do that again, but for something else. We all know that the food bank is having a hard time. That is why we set up this soup campaign.”
The intention was therefore to collect a can of soup per customer, but the campaign turned out to be more successful, so more non-perishable products were collected from the supermarket shelves. “Especially sandwich fillings were scarce, I understood from the food bank.”
They were therefore surprised this morning by the amount of products delivered: “We often have deliveries from religious denominations or other clubs, but we have never experienced such a large private campaign,” says Henk Schipper of the food bank in Coevorden. “It really is fantastic.”
Schipper emphasizes that the items end up well: “The need is great at the food banks. In the past three months, our list of customers has become much longer. About eighty households now come every two weeks. These people cannot imagine afford something extra, not even at Christmas or New Year’s Eve. That’s why this is so important. We can now offer them a slightly nicer New Year’s Eve.”