Bags of Love 2022
THANK YOU FOR 19 YEARS OF LOVE
THANK YOU Constantia parish family, for your outstanding generosity and support for our 19th Bags of Love Appeal 2021. We raised enough to fill and supply 650 bags to families in need over Christmas - a new record!
From those who bought bags outside the church and filled them, to those who filled their own bags and to the donations direct to the parish, we are very grateful to you all. The support, enthusiasm and pure care and kindness in our parish is moving - thank you!
Special thanks go to John Kotze and his team at Pick n Pay, Plumstead who give us a generous deal on the contents and supplied the bags for free. We also thank Maurice Bergoff and Claremont Rotary for their ongoing annual support to this appeal. To our Bags of Love team, Barry Smith, Karen Parkin; to Fr Robert and Don Bowden and the Outreach team; and Deborah and Viv in the parish office for their coordination with distribution.
The bags were delivered to families in:
- Hout Bay
- Bonteheuwel
- Maitland
- Steenberg
- Delft
Your kindness helped feed 650 families over Christmas and their appreciation was heart warming.
Thank you again.
Love
Gina Clifford-Holmes
HOW IT WORKS
Shopping list
The shopping list below has been compiled by experts and is designed to feed a family of 4 for a week. People are asked to fill a bag only with the items on the list. As much as one is tempted to add in extra goodies, it can cause consternation if bags are not the same.
- 1 kg x Sugar
- 1 kg x kg Rice
- 1 kg x Mielie Meal
- 1 x can of Mixed vegetables
- 1 x can of Baked beans
- 1 x can of Pilchards
- 1 x jar Peanut butter
- 1 x jar of Jam
- 1 x pack Soya mince
- 500 g x bag of Brown lentils
- 1 x Biscuits
- 1 x small box of Tea bags
- 1 x bag of Sweets
3 WAYS TO PARTICIPATE
1. Buy a bag and fill it
Collect a bag after Mass or from the Parish Office and fill it with the items from the shopping list. Each bag is a R10 donation.
2. Fill your own bag
Use your own sturdy and recyclable bag and fill it with items from the shopping list.
3. Donation
If you are unable to get out to do the shopping, or for your convenience, you can make a monetary donation to Bags of Love and we will do the shopping for you. The estimated value of all the items on the list is R300. Please send your donation, ideally via EFT, to Parish bank account – details below.
Constantia Catholic Church
Standard Bank
Branch 025 309
Current Account No 07 169 8965
REF: Bags of Love
CHILDREN
Bags of love is a great activity for children. Let them take the list, do the shopping, fill the bags and bring them to the church. It is a great way for children to learn about and to feel compassion for the poor, and to be grateful for their blessings.
MORE INFORMATION
If you have any questions please contact Parish Office or Gina Clifford-Holmes on gina@agelessgracewithgina.com.
PRAYERFUL GIVING
When filling bags let us do it with a prayer - a prayer for those who are struggling, a prayer for the poor, a prayer to alleviate poverty and hunger in our world and a prayer of thanks for all our blessings, big and small!
The Pope has said much about our responsibility for the poor this year. Below is taken from the Pope's Homily on 14 November, World Day of Prayer for the Poor.
"We are part of a history marked by tribulation, violence, suffering and injustice, ever awaiting a liberation that never seems to arrive. Those who are most wounded, oppressed and even crushed, are the poor, the weakest links in the chain. The World Day of the Poor which we are celebrating asks us not to turn aside, not to be afraid to take a close look at the suffering of those most vulnerable. Today’s Gospel has much to say to them. The sun of their life is often darkened by loneliness, the moon of their expectations has waned and the stars of their dreams have fallen into gloom; their lives have been shaken. All because of the poverty into which they are often forced, victims of injustice and the inequality of a throwaway society that hurries past without seeing them and without scruple abandons them to their fate.
There is, however, another aspect: tomorrow’s hope. Jesus wants to open our hearts to hope, to remove our anxiety and fear before the pain of the world. And so, he tells us that even as the sun grows dark and everything around us seems to be falling, he himself is drawing near. Amid the groans of our painful history, a future of salvation is beginning to blossom. Tomorrow’s hope flowers amid today’s pain".
