FAQ: Where does the food come from?

A large proportion of the food which NOC uses on Christmas Day comes from the Buckingham Emergency Food Appeal (BEFA) which is a Norfolk based registered charity with roots in the farming community and a strong commitment to the people of Norfolk.

Founded twenty four years ago, BEFA's mission is to collect good food from the people of Norfolk to help feed the homeless and those fleeing domestic violence at Christmas.

BEFA distributes food through established shelters, supported accommodation projects, Open Christmas events and experienced agencies such as the Salvation Army which have daily contact with the homeless and vulnerable.

BEFA has no paid staff and keeps administration costs to a negligible amount. So, almost every penny donated goes to purchase food.

BEFA 2008 statistics

Local farmers donated most of the fresh produce – more than 40 pallets of fruit and vegetables. Food Wholesalers and Manufacturers donate foodstuffs at Christmas and during the course of the year too. The total value of food donated last year was over £60,000.

Norfolk schoolchildren donated sugar a packet at a time – over 4 tonnes. British Sugar matched the “Silver Spoon” sugar donated, bringing the total amount of sugar collected and distributed to shelters and projects to over 6 tonnes!

Norfolk families, schools, clubs and other local charities like Norwich Open Christmas made donations of cash totalling over £25,000 during 2008, which was used to purchase those necessary food items (like turkeys and Christmas Puddings) which had not been donated.

Local volunteers donate time, office space and stationery while local businesses help with postage, copying, transportation and warehousing.

In all, BEFA provided food for more than 15,000 meals for the homeless and lonely of Norfolk over Christmas 2008 and the following ten or so days.

In addition, BEFA sent lorryloads of food to Cambridgeshire, to Manchester for 41 homeless projects, soup kitchens and refuges in the northwest, and one to Food for All in London. All these lorries were filled to overflowing!

In all, over the Christmas period 2008 BEFA calculated that they were responsible for supplying 55,000 meals!

To contact the Buckingham Emergency Food Appeal, please click here and we will pass your message on.

Help BEFA without leaving your PC

Norwich Open Christmas is proud to be raising funds for the BUCKINGHAM EMERGENCY FOOD APPEAL by using a great new search engine called Everyclick.com. Everyclick has already raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for charity and there’s no cost to the user or the charity.

It's a great way for us to help charity every day of the year.

Join in and help us raise more: Everyclick.com