St Aidan’s Parish supports South Belfast Food Bank

Saturday February 13th 2016

South Belfast Community Food Bank had a display in the Christmas Tree Festival held in St Aidan’s last December.

St Aidan’s Parish in south Belfast has partnered with the Trussell Trust and now sends a monthly collection and donates food four times a year to the South Belfast Community Food Bank.

One of the initiatives of local churches working together in the area has been to set up a hub for the food bank in Blythe Street. This is situated at Friendship House and managed by a team of volunteers from the churches, overseen by Alison Shaw, St Aidan’s Family Worker.

The Food Bank benefited from a retiring collection lifted at the Community Carol Service last December, which was also the launch of the St Aidan’s Christmas Tree Festival. The service was held in St Aidan’s as it is the only church in the area big enough to cope with large numbers. Almost 200 attended from local congregations with all the ministers participating in the service.

The retiring collection, added to collections taken during the week at the tree display, amounted to £330 which was donated to the Food Bank, along with a large donation of food from St Aidan’s, St Simon’s and Donegall Road Primary School.

Advent and Christmas may now seem a distant memory, but some of the lovely trees on display at the Festival (and some of the scenes from St Aidan’s Nativity) are well worth revisiting in our gallery (below).