Our Volunteering and Outreach team has launched the annual Festive Food Drive 2023 to collect as many food items as possible to help families who need a little extra support this Christmas. This year we’re aiming for a bumper Food Drive as we’ve teamed up with our fellow North East universities; Newcastle, Northumbria, Sunderland and Teesside, in a bid to collect as many items as possible and make as big a difference as possible to our local communities across the region.
We’re accepting donations from University staff, students and the local community until Thursday 30 November. There are more than 30 donation points spread across the University estate.
This includes several colleges such as Collingwood, St Aidan’s and St Cuthbert's Society, as well as departments including the Law School, Geography and the Business School.
Collection points can also be found at the Bill Bryson Library, Sir Thomas Allen Assembly Rooms Theatre and the Teaching and Learning Centre reception.
Dig deep and donate!
We’re accepting non-perishable foods such as pasta, tinned goods and long-life juices. We’re also looking for non-food items such as toiletries, household cleaning products and animal food.
Our team of volunteers will sort all the items in early December where they will also be weighed.
Newcastle, Northumbria, Sunderland and Teesside universities will also weigh all the items they’ve collected, so at the end of the Food Drive we’ll have a grand total of the combined weight of all donations from across the North East.
After the sorting and weighing, the goods will be sent off to charities who will make sure they get to the people who need them before Christmas.
Charity partnerships
Each North East university involved in the Festive Food Drive 2023 has chosen their own charities to partner with.
Here at Durham we’re working with the national foodbank charity the Trussell Trust, the Stockton-based charity A Way Out and Feeding Families, who work across the Northeast.
For more information about the Festive Food Drive and the items we’re accepting, please visit our Durham Volunteering webpages here.
Find out more
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