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The Big Family Night In

Donating Board Games to the most in need families in Wolverhampton.

The Big Family Night In

Donna Palmer

Covid-19 has had a major impact on everybody all over the globe not just sadly due to lives lost but also due to job losses and reductions in salaries. Many families have been struggling to pay bills and put food on their tables. The Wolverhampton churches have a successful track record providing food via food banks and the Happy Monday Mondays Soup Kitchen. 
Esther Douglas and I run the Happy Mondays Soup Kitchen based at Wolverhampton Central church and we approached Joan Amore from the Adventist Food Bank, based at Great Brickkiln Street church to look at how we could bring some Christmas happiness into the homes of families across Wolverhampton. We also knew that Covid has had a huge impact on the emotional wellbeing of families and looked at how we could bring families together. 
The Big Family Night In, was an initiative to place a board game in every food parcel that the Adventist Food Bank delivers. The food bank works in partnership with Wolverhampton City Council to deliver food parcels to our most in need families. This gave us the opportunity to reach a wide number of families from differing backgrounds. We were then approached by Charmaine Putzgruber who is the Wolverhampton Central Children’s Ministries lead who also asked to get involved.
Church members from Wolverhampton, Sheffield, Birmingham, Manchester and London donated finances and we were also blessed by a donation from the NEC. Parents within the Junior Sabbath School also donated to their own fundraising scheme to allow them to also put small gifts into the parcels. The fundraising by the Junior Sabbath School was coupled with their weekly ‘Project Lockdown’ children’s devotional which had a daily focus on helping others. 
The kind donations given allowed us to donate 102 board game to the most in need families at Christmas.
We also added small literature books and included a stay in touch card that provided each family details of our local pastor, Pendeford church prayer line and details of our social media platforms. 
I would like to take his opportunity to thank everyone who supported the Big Family Night In. Through service, we give others the things they lack and we find meaning and fulfilment to our own lives.