Human Kindness #8: The Season of Giving

Welcome back to Human Kindness! If you haven’t already, please check out Human Kindness: Introduction for the background to this blog series! These stories are NOT all my own, they have been submitted to me for the purpose of this series and are a collection from some of the kindest people I know or who have contacted me to share their story.

I am ALWAYS on the lookout for kindness stories, so please do get in touch if you have one, there is a chance for you to submit yours at the end of this post (and I will always keep them anonymous). As always, if you’d like to receive these stories directly to your inbox every Monday morning, sign up to the mailing list at the end of this post.

This week’s story particularly gave me goosebumps (I know I rave off each week’s story but they really do all move me!) because I can identify with the sharer’s feelings towards big companies and housing associations and I love hearing stories about Christmas being the season of giving. This story left me pleasantly surprised and very moved, and I know it will do the same for you!

“I work for a cool organisation that has a food bank and various other branches that help those in need or those in poverty in Cheshire. I was so blown away at Christmas last year.

The foodbank staff ran a Christmas project where they put the word out that they were going to create Christmas hampers of treats for people in need containing things that people maybe wouldn’t be able to afford but that made Christmas special. Things like yule logs, chocolate selection boxes, crackers, Christmas puddings, that kind of thing. They contacted referral agencies such as social workers and were soon busy planning the local drive.

The bit that got me though was the kindness of people and local businesses etc. I get pretty angry with housing associations, big businesses and those sorts of organisations for being tight with their money, and not caring about people in need. It’s frustrating to see. But whenever there was a need, it got filled. They were low on people to pack hampers? The local police drove a bunch of primary school kids over and joined them in packing hampers. We had no chocolate selection boxes? The local council bought out every single local store. We were low on certain items? The community rallied and filled the entire food bank. Housing associations sent staff to help pack hampers and connect them with the people in their houses. Local supermarkets donated so much food.

In total, around 400 households were given these hampers to make Christmas special, and the way everybody came together and how it happened really restored my faith in humanity.”

Have you experienced an act of kindness recently? Maybe you have done something for somebody that you haven’t yet shared for fear of being judged to be “bragging” or you have been on the receiving end of a kindness that somebody has shown you. My inbox is ALWAYS open for your kindness stories so please submit them!

Stories will be treated with discretion and published anonymously at all times, and I will share as much or as little information as you wish. Message me using the form below and I’ll be sure to feature your story in an upcoming post.

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