Warwick District homeless charity calling for help with rucksack appeal

Helping Hands, which is based in Leamington, are asking the public for donations of rucksacks so that they can be given out to the homeless.

The charity works with vulnerable and homeless people in the district by providing much-needed help through a soup kitchen, skills training and their ‘House2Home’ service, which provides household items that the tenants could not afford to buy themselves.

In the run up to Christmas Helping Hands relaunched their shoebox appeal, where more than 1,000 boxes containing much-needed items were donated to the charity by members of the public.

Now that the shoebox appeal has come to an end until later this year, the charity have now relaunched their rucksack appeal.

The charity runs the appeal throughout the year.

Lianne Kirkman, manager at Helping Hands said: “So now Christmas is over and the fantastic Christmas shoe boxes are all finished for another year, we are relaunching our Rucksack Appeal.

“All the items we had donated for the shoeboxes are useful all year round for us to give out at our soup kitchen, but often homeless people need a decent big bag to carry all their possessions in and we get asked for this all the time.

“If you have any old rucksacks that you’re not using anymore but they are still in good useable condition, please drop them into the Lighthouse, 12 Gloucester Street, Leamington and mention they are for our Rucksack Appeal.

“It will really make a difference.”

The charity are also always looking for donations such as gloves, hats, warm coats, sleeping bags, socks and tinned goods with a ring pull.