June2020

Parish outreach
Foodbank donations have been an important part of our parish outreach for the
past five years and the need for financial donations is now even greater.
In the past, activities such as Eddleston’s Bite and Blether, and the Stobo
Community coffee mornings have generated sizeable and regular donations to the
Foodbank along with other fundraising efforts throughout the county.
Stobo Community Coffee mornings
It was suggested about 18 months ago
at a Kirk Session Meeting that we
should be doing more to support our
local community. We decided to hold a
coffee morning in Stobo Village Hall on
20th April 2019 to ask people in the
Stobo and Drumelzier Parish what kind
of support the church could offer them.
People came up with a number of
suggestions but there seemed to be
overwhelming support for a regular
coffee morning and local people were
keen that the village hall should be used on a regular basis. The Kirk Session
decided that we would organise a monthly coffee morning on the second Saturday
of the month in Stobo village hall. The aim would be to charge just a small
amount, £2.50 for coffee and cakes. We wanted to provide a social occasion for all
local people but also to welcome people from nearby villages and Peebles and
anyone who just happened to be passing - cyclists or people on holiday. We
decided that if we all sat at one table everyone would feel included in the
conversation so they would feel comfortable if they happened to come on their own
or if they did not know anyone who was there. Volunteers provide home baking
and coffee is provided by the village hall committee. We also wanted to provide
financial support to a local initiative that was making a difference in the lives of
local people and we decided that we would like to commit ourselves to providing a
regular sum of money to help fund the Peeblesshire Foodbank. Our Treasurer
suggested that the church should donate money from existing church funds. The
Kirk Session agreed that we should provide £50 every month and we would also
donate the funds raised
through the coffee morning.
Attendance at the coffee
mornings varies enormously;
sometimes there is just a
handful of people but at other
times we have had nearly 30
people.
In 2019 £719 was donated to
the Peeblesshire Foodbank and
so far in 2020, £356 from
Stobo Kirk.