As we often find at this time of year, donations to the Food Hub take a little bit of a dive…unfortunately just as the school summer holidays start. So we are especially grateful to everyone who kindly dropped off badly-needed supplies in July.

And we urgently request any extra support you may be able to give us please in August. The month’s Top Ten most-needed items are headed by boxed packet soup needing only hot water, small bottles/concentrated discs of squash, and pasta sauce in cartons.

Tinned vegetables – peas, carrots, sweetcorn – are also on our list, along with 500g packets of sugar, packets of sweet biscuits, tinned rice pudding, and packet custard needing only hot water.

The two non-food items we particularly need are toothpaste, especially for children, and sanitary pads.

Click here to view the list in full. To have it sent with our monthly newsletter directly to your inbox at the beginning of each month, please email steve.purleyfoodhub@gmail.com.

Donations can kindly be delivered to Purley United Reformed Church, next to Purley Hospital, between 9.00am – 11.30am on Wednesday, Saturday and Monday mornings (except on Bank Holiday Monday 31st August).

On Wednesdays and Saturdays please come round to the open brown doors on the right-hand (Purley Hospital) side of the church building. On Mondays go up the path on the left side of the church as you enter from Brighton Road to the double white doors at the far end of the building.

Donations can also be dropped off at any of our in-store and roadside collection points listed here. In real difficulty, we may be able to collect your donations – please email purleyfoodhub@gmail.com or text 07546 635295.

As well as the Food Hub, your donations also go to help support the two local Food Stops – at Old Lodge Lane Baptist Church, Purley, and St Francis Church, Monks Hill, Selsdon – where our clients can get further help after receiving our emergency food bags.

As we always say, we are thankful for EVERYONE’S continued kindness and generosity – for every single tin, jar, carton, bottle and pound we receive. Since we started up in 2013 we have provided food for over 430,000 meals for more than 48,000 people in Purley, Kenley, Coulsdon and the rest of the southern part of the Borough of Croydon.