‘Christmas Lunch on Jesus’ has happened every year since 2010 – providing Christmas boxes containing turkey, vegetables, potatoes, gravy, Christmas pudding, crackers, chocolates, cranberry sauce, mince pies… everything needed for a really enjoyable and healthy Christmas lunch.

Last year the team distributed 350 boxes to families and individuals on low income, who otherwise would struggle to afford a Christmas meal – feeding 1500 people. Nominations for boxes were received from Social Services, GPs, the Women’s Refuge, Housing Associations, Churches, and Derby City Mission Basics Bank. Each box also contained a booklet about the meaning of Christmas, and an invite to Christmas services throughout Derby City Centre.

In 2012, to celebrate the new link between Derby and Calcutta Cathedral and City Centre churches (as part of the Diocesan link with the Church of North India), the team partnered with friends there to provide Christmas boxes for some of the poorest people in Calcutta’s slums, containing rice, lentils, dahl, biscuits, sweets…a Christmas feast for those who live in poverty on a daily basis. This also included a celebration candle and a New Testament. Last year, they distributed 380 hampers and in addition served lunch for 1400 people in the Cathedral! This happened in 2014 and will happen again this year.

This year there are two new developments. Firstly, churches in Auckland are running the project for 50 families from the Maori and Islander Communities, some of the poorest in New Zealand. Secondly, in light of the migrant crisis, the team will be working closely with the British Red Cross to provide hampers for migrant families new to our city.

Find out more below.