BLOG: Getting organised at the Queen's Arms

Lions Club of Reading on the road, collecting donations.

It’s been another busy week at New Beginnings Reading, with the Lions Club of Reading hitting Caverham for food donations. They were not disappointed and delivered a huge number of donations from the lovely people of Caversham - thanks to everyone who donated and particularly the Lions who are continuing their food collection drive throughout June. They’ll be coming to a street near you so sign up and get involved if you’re able to.

Alan, hard at work in the New Beginnings Reading garden.

We hope you all enjoyed the Bank Holiday weekend sunshine with time out in the garden. One of our volunteers, Alan, kindly cut the grass here at New Beginnings. It was like a jungle but now is looking very smart, and he made a grand job of it! Thanks Alan! #rdgtogether

Essential donations in the form of clothes.

As well as Alan’s green-fingers, the Queen’s Arms got a makeover from a trusty group of volunteers. All the donations we’ve received have been sorted into different sections which makes it much easier to run the community fridge. We can now quickly get to the items people need, which means we’ll be able to serve around 50 people in an hour. Thanks to our wonderful volunteers and their amazing organising skills.

James from Fink Street Food made vegetarian chili and nachos for donations.

This week saw some great chefs cooking up a storm in the kitchen. By having people volunteer their time (and wonderful cooking skills), we can provide freshly prepared hot meals for those that need them.

Heathrow Airport donating canned drinks. And special thanks to Debbie Lambie for offering to pick them up for us.

We’re grateful for all the generous donations which we continue to receive. Highlights this week came from Heathrow Airport, Pepsico and Homesense in Reading.

PepsiCo in GreenPark donated crisps and breakfast bars.

Donations are always welcome so please get in touch with us if you’re able to help. You can also donate via our website.

Homesense in Reading gave a massive donation this week.

Keep an eye out on our social media pages all week long, as we’ll be celebrating Volunteers Week. We have so many wonderful volunteers here at New Beginnings, so we wanted to take the time to spotlight a few and ask why volunteering is important to them.