MPs appeal for donations to Christmas Toy Appeal

The Labour MP of Reading East, Matt Rhodda, and the Conservative MP of Maidenhead, Twyford and Hurst, Rt Hon Theresa May have expressed their support for a local charity’s Christmas Toy fundraiser. They are urging the Berkshire community to donate to the cause.  
 
Matt Rhodda said: “I believe the toys and teens appeal is one of the most important at this time of year. I fully support it, and ask the community to offer all their help to make it the best one ever this Christmas. Due to Covid-19 it has been a difficult year for families and I believe this is an incredibly important initiative to help families at this difficult time”.  
 
With over 28,000 children living below the breadline in Reading, this equates to more than one in three children who live in poverty[1].  After paying for housing and utilities these families have just £19 a day to live on[2], which has to cover food, clothes, transport, birthdays and everything else they might need.  Reading Family Aid are fundraising to provide presents for these underprivileged children living in Reading and the surrounding areas.  Without your help, these children may not get a Christmas present this year. 
 
Mrs May said: “I am urging as many people as possible to come forward and donate to Reading Family Aid’s Toys and Teens Appeal initiative. This fantastic local initiative raises money to ensure those most disadvantaged children locally receive presents this Christmas time. Christmas is a special time of year, but this year will be particularly difficult. That is why schemes such as this are more important than ever and Reading Family Aid do an excellent job bringing joy to many children throughout the festive period”.

​The Christmas Toys and Teens Appeal, organised by Reading Family Aid, will be slightly different this year due to the pandemic.  The charity has set up a fundraising page and is asking you to donate money instead of gifts.  This money will then be used to buy new Christmas presents for disadvantaged children in Reading, which will be delivered directly to the organisations that help them.

Given the significant financial impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on many, we are expecting more children than ever before to need your help.  Anything you can give, no matter how small will make a huge difference to these families at Christmas time.  Thank you.  

Our fundraising page will remain open until 4th December, at which point the fund will be used to buy presents that will be sent directly to organisations and distributed to underprivileged children across Reading. We’d also like to give a big thank you to our sponsors: Berkshire Freemasons, Big Yellow, Caversham Vehicle Hire.
 
To donate, please visit our Go Fund Me crowdfunding page. 

You can also print out a poster here.

[1] https://www.getreading.co.uk/news/reading-berkshire-news/shocking-number-children-berkshire-living-18145379
[2] https://www.firstdays.net/