The Greenaway Foundation gives out more than 500 Christmas lunches around Crawley

MP Henry Smith, MP Mims Davies, The Mayor of Crawley Councilor Cllr Francis Guidera, The Mayor OF East Grinstead Councillor John Dabell

Every Christmas The Greenaway Foundation helps locally financially challenged families on Christmas Eve by providing families with all the ingredients they will need to cook a two-course healthy Christmas dinner. More families than ever before in the Crawley, East Grinstead and Horley areas needed the extra support

In 2011, Darren Greenaway of Greenaway Residential Estate Agents and founder of The Greenaway Foundation made it his mission to provide help to five families that needed it during the Christmas period. Now, 9 years later, over 520 families this Christmas have been the grateful recipients of all the ingredients needed to cook a healthy 2 course Christmas dinner this December. Through the power of community, over 170 volunteers contributed their time and efforts to assemble the food hampers and deliver them on Christmas Eve morning.

The Wishing Tree has also grown since it’s inception 4 years ago and over 400 wishes to Santa were delivered to Children all over West Sussex and Surrey this year. With the help of 50 schools within the districts of Crawley, Horley and East Grinstead, families and children were nominated so that they could enjoy the festivities of Christmas, despite experiencing an extremely challenging or tough year. Alongside the presents that Santa provided, the elves also managed to provide a cuddly reindeer toy to so many extra children as a surprise.

The High Sheriff of West Sussex Dr Fooks with Darren Greenaway

On Christmas Eve, the 525 food hampers were delivered to each family, all before lunchtime. With the help of MP Henry Smith, MP Mims Davies, The Mayor of Crawley Councilor Cllr Francis Guidera, The Mayor OF East Grinstead Councillor John Dabell and the High Sheriff of West Sussex Dr Fooks, who all got stuck in delivering hampers along with the hundreds of volunteers and delivery drivers as well as the staff of Greenaway Residential Letting Agents, these families have been able to wake up on Christmas Day with hopefully a little less worry on their shoulders as under their tree sits presents for the children and food for the whole family.