The already traditional Christmas donation from Schunk's works council went to the food bank in Giessen this year. The donation came from employees at the Heuchelheim site, who responded to the works council's call for donations at the last works meeting. "With our donations, we traditionally help colleagues who are in need or social and charitable institutions and initiatives in the region," reports Damian Obruschnik from the Works Council. "This time, we wanted to lend a hand to the food bank in Giessen."
3,500 euros came together in this way, largely from many individual donations from employees, but also including larger amounts from the executives of Schunk Sintermetalltechnik or the proceeds from the Schunk employee presentation of the Wettenberger Sammelsurium. Schunk doubled the amount, so that Simon Alsmeier and Obruschnik were able to hand over a check for 7,000 euros to Anna Conrad.
"We are very grateful for Schunk's help, because we can only finance our work by means of donations," said the head of the food banks in the city and district of Giessen at the handover. "The number of users we support at the food bank on a regular basis continues to rise." The increased cost of living in particular has caused many people to come to the food bank in recent months who could not have imagined doing so themselves a year ago, Conrad said. "And many people are actually needy, but don't come to us because they think, 'There are people who are even needier than I am.' We could help a lot more people if we had more space. Currently, we have a waiting list of half a year," Conrad reports.
Many children need help
Currently, the food bank has 289 volunteers who help 3,800 people with food at six distribution points in Giessen and the district - including 1,400 children under the age of 14. Around 50 people with limited mobility receive the food delivered to their homes.
In addition to the food donations, the food bank pursues three major children's projects: There is the project "A special day", in which needy children receive a school bag, school cone as well as school supplies when they start school. "No child should have to go to school with a plastic bag," says Conrad. For the "School Fruit Breakfast" project, the food bank provides the fruit for a breakfast for children in the 1st grade. And in the "Heart's Desires" project, children have their very personal wishes fulfilled. "These wishes are often enough quite elementary, such as a pillow or bedspread of their own," reports Conrad.
The head of the food bank in Giessen has plenty of ideas for other activities to benefit children: she is currently planning to offer children in need swimming courses and sports activities such as soccer and basketball.
