The After-effects of Festive “Fairweather Volunteering”

by Molly Long

Thanks to popular culture, we rarely see sights like this outside of the festive season ©Philip Shannon

For many of us, Christmas and new year are already distant memories. But the deficit in volunteer help that follows the festive season is hard to forget for local homeless charities across the country. Helping out in soup kitchens and donating festive food is romanticised throughout popular culture. From January to November, the subject drops off the public radar.

“People are homeless all year round,” says Alan Simpson, a support worker for the homeless at Ealing Soup Kitchen. “It’s so easy to find people to help through Christmas, but next to impossible for any other time in the year.”

Applications for volunteering roles can easily more than quadruple in the weeks before Christmas, leaving shelters and kitchens oversubscribed. “The problem is, Christmas is only part way through the winter,” Alan explains. Now past the festive season, Alan and his team are dealing with increasingly colder temperatures without the help that Christmas brought.

Support workers like Alan are urging people to revisit their seasonal well-wishing as the spring approaches. “The thing is, if any of the people we end up turning away at Christmas came back to help out in the New Year, we would be under far less pressure,” he says.

Instead, it is advised that people wanting to help do so throughout the year. This can be done through donations of goods or time. By doing so, we can make sure festive goodwill makes a difference all year round.

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