News
Giving is Good! - Collecting non-perishable food items for the poor
On 15 December, from 8 am to 12 noon, 24 members of the Order and half a dozen or so relatives took turns to take part in the food collection drive organised every year by SPAR Supermarkets and our Charity Service. Our Head Chaplain, Bishop Levente Balázs Martos, was also actively involved!
The essence of this six-day pre-Christmas food collection drive, which has been going on for 28 years now, is to address people going to the supermarket and ask them to buy something extra, dropping it off at the Order of Malta collection point after passing the cashier. Our task are: distributing leaflets at the entrance, communicating with customers, sorting the donations, boxing them by type and delivering them to the warehouse. Quite tiring tasks, especially over several hours. But perhaps the most exciting is convincing shoppers, busy in the pre-Christmas rush, that it is good to give, that donating is a joy. It was an interesting experience to see how many young people were open to it, perhaps for the first time in their lives. Another characteristic feature was that many of our donors were elderly people who were visibly less fortunate. Perhaps because they themselves had experienced the importance of receiving such help.
Tamás Romhányi, Head of Communications at our Charity Service, said: "Giving is Good! is the largest fundraising campaign of the Hungarian Charity Service of the Order of Malta, with more than 3,000 volunteers taking part countrywide. They receive donations from customers, prepare the parcels in the warehouses and many of them personally deliver them to people in need before the holiday. Until 17 December, a total of 151 Spar and Interspar stores are open for donations."
The close working relationship between the Charity Service and the National Association is the embodiment of our charism in action. Even in something as simple as a holiday fundraiser.
VL
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