To return my winning hamper?

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ADVICE NEEDED BEFORE COLLECTION TOMORROW PLEASE

So
We won the hamper from the preschool nativity
It’s huge
And the 2nd hamper I’ve won in a week 🙈
The first one (from works Xmas do) we are giving to grandparents for Xmas
This other one is ginormous, there is so much stuff, we do not have a big enough house for all this stuff 🙈, I don’t want to seem ungrateful but we just don’t need it and want to do something better with it than take it home.

Here are some options that I can see

1. Ask them to give it to the staff to take home if they are short of any gifts for staff
2. Ask them to hold another raffle in the new year - not sure how easy this would be - surely a sign on the door would suffice?
3. Take it to the food bank - removing booze and donating that to the village hall raffle tomorrow night for the brass band carol concert we are going to.
4. Take it to the food bank but ask preschool to take the booze for staff.

One massive thing to remember here though is that the staff all donated this stuff for the hamper so I don’t want to appear ungrateful by offering it back to them 🙈

I just don’t want to come across as ungrateful or rude

Please help

I’m open to other suggestions too 😊

Thank you for all the opinions!

I will take the booze and put that in tomorrow nights village hall, brass band raffle - just wait for me to win again 😂
Then the remainder of the food/chocolate and whatever else is in the hamper I’ll take to the food bank in the hope that they can make use of it.

I definitely don’t want to be seen as rude to preschool, so won’t offer anything back to them. They are all absolutely wonderful people, we are so lucky.

Call your local foodbank and ask what they will and won't accept. I was shopping in Sainsburys a couple of years ago and was given a list of items by someone from the Trussell Trust who was collecting donations from people as they left the store. It was basic stuff – pasta, sugar, tea, coffee, dried milk, biscuits, tinned meat, tinned fruit, tinned soup etc.

I thought I'd be generous and added in a couple of Christmas cakes, mince pies, bags of crisps, a box of chocolates and so on. They were refused and I took them home with me.

I suspect food banks vary in what they'll take and what they're looking for.

food bank, aged care home, hospital staff room? fire station staff room, ambulance staff room, lots of places that would be happy to have your hamper and the staff would love to be able to take a share of it, or eat while on shift

I help quite a bit with a food bank and that one would certainly be interested in seasonal treats etc. I realise some may have different policies owing to simple practicalities such as space but I doubt whether many would turn you down.
Incidentally, round my way, if you are there when a raffle is drawn and don't actually want or need the prize it is quite acceptable to ask for the organisers to draw another ticket.

I once won a large Christmas hamper years ago, and donated it to the warden controlled flats complex where my Mum lived. There is about 30 flats there,and they have a Christmas party in the communal room every year, so all the oldies loved the extra Christmas fare. They wanted the booze as well,as lots of them liked a tipple or two!

Food bank! Do food banks not take booze then?! That's a bit miserable of them. Don't poor people deserve a bit of a treat?!

furry a lot of people struggle with addition. What a ridiculous thing to say. Or they might not drink due to religion. Are the volunteers supposed to interview everyone!? They haven't time!

You are massively overthinking this. Just say thank you, we've already been lucky this week and get them to draw another ticket.

Local police station? I'd quite like a tipsy police officer to rock up in my hour of need (genuinely).

Joke

Seems like you're sorted with what you're doing

If your local food bank can't make use of it, and it's full of Christmas treats and snacks, the staff room of a community hospital would be grateful for it. We had one donated to where I was working a couple of years ago and it was much appreciated. We had a name out of a hat draw for the booze as well.

BillHadersNewWife I guess addicion would account for their booze policies, fair enough. Not sure about the no choc thing though? Maybe allergies.

I don't think it necessarily a ridiculous comment though BillHadersNewWife People who don't drink due to addiction, religion etc can just say Oh I don't want that and take the rest.

Option 3

I honestly had never considered that there are items that food banks might not allow? I have beeen considering donating to one, but I was thinking more in terms of pasta, porridge, etc I know my local one is alwys asking for staple foods

Option 3. I think it’s the best especially for the time of year

Bit confused about people bring negative about OP wanting to pass on some nice items, rather than being greedy. Why would a food bank not want chutney, posh jam, biscuits or whatever is in the hamper?! At work l sometimes take my clients to food bank and my experience is the organisers are happy for all donations

Option 3

Food banks often have a stash of treat supplies where people who have need a treat can pick one out. Sometimes it's even so food bank users can offer a gift to someone else.
Alcohol is tricky with food banks but other raffles etc would be grateful.

PS.
Don't buy any more raffle tickets for prizes you don't want.😁
Just put money in the box but don't take a ticket.

Our church asked for essentials and Christmas food. Surely it will brighten someones day to receive some Christmas goodies in their bag.Ours are begged up and delivered with a Christmas Card.

Alternative could be A&E staff/ Hospital staff for some of it.We took chocolates around tonight with carol singers in most of the wards for an hour.The patients were all offered a sweetie too.

Bagged up.

OP buy as many tickets as you want, how lovely to pass it on to others and give them joy. BAH HUMBUG to those critics.

I’m shocked at a Trussell Trust food bank rejecting treat foods. I used to work for them, and giving clients dignity through allowing them as normal life as possible was considered really important.

This meant things like giving them their food in shop branded (preferably matching) carrier bags, so they look as though they’ve just been to the shops. It also meant giving them as much choice as possible in what foods they received. And it meant allowing them to eat mince pies at Christmas like everyone else!

To me, denying foodbank clients special food at Christmas is completely against the ethos of kindness and dignity.

However, it is probably too late now for them to distribute a hamper in time for Christmas, so I agree with seeing if there’s a family in need who might benefit from receiving it directly from you / a local church.

On the alcohol front, alcohol is a contributing factor in poverty, and poverty is a contributing factor is alcoholism. By not distributing alcohol, food banks are trying to prevent perpetuating that cycle.

@saraclara thank you for sharing your story -- so glad you were able to glean some good memories from that hamper!

similar when my mom was in her last week, at home, (only age 68) my sister and i had moved in with her and it was so dismal and depressing. one day there was a knock on the door and a good friend of mine was there with, literally, a hand cart of stuff a very small potted Christmas tree, flameless battery-operated candles, a scented thing, a CD of Christmas carols, and every food item she could remember that we liked sliced ham, cheeses, snack foods, good bread, mustards, olvies, Coke, wine and other things.

She raced around unloading it all and laying out the food, turned on the carols, then pulled her chair up to my mom's bed (which was in the front room) and took her hand and started talking to her, urging us to get a bite to eat. Mom was pertty moribund at that point (mostly unresponsive) but Debbie talked to her and told her not to worry, that she (Deb) would help us and watch out for us, that we would be OK, etc. etc. -- honestly that was over 10 years ago and I still feel overwhelmed with gratitude at the light she brought into that home when she could've used her time off work to be doing festive things.

Homeless shelter

MrsFionaCharming I agree- they should be treated the same as anyone else. I sort of understand now about teh alcohol, though surely up to the client to refuse alcohol if they have a problem with it.

It's a shame you can't ask them to draw someone else now I'm guessing.

I'd give the appropriate things to a food bank and keep the rest. As I understand it food banks want non-perishable food that's easy to cook or can be eaten cold. So keep the mince pies for yourself. If it's a shop-bought hamper it probably does have lots of tins and jars that'll be good for a food bank.