Lions Fun Market

Selling Beans to Raise Funds for
Bexhill & Battle Foodbank

When Bexhill Lions asked us, Bexhill Rotary Club, to put up a stand for their new Fun Market on 16th May we had to come up with an idea which would help contribute to the event and be of service to the Bexhill community.

The idea was proposed and agreed to make this a Fundraising event for the Bexhill & Battle Foodbank. Every Tuesday afternoon our club collects donations from around Bexhill to help with the Foodbank's mission, so we are already supporting what they do and it is good to be able to boost awareness and raise some extra cash.

Teaming up with the Foodbank they provided us with a basket of goods, typical for a family shop of around £20, from their shops in Bexhill, Sidley & Battle. A quick dash down to Tesco Ravenside we purchased 100 cans of Baked Beans and then set to attaching raffle ticket to each can. 

The buying incentive was an Afternoon Tea at The Relais Cooden Beach, sponsored by the Hotel. Visitors to the Fun Market would be asked to make a donation towards the Foodbank in exchange for a can of beans and entry into the raffle.

Saturday 16th May started dry and sunny, which was a bit of a bonus as the weather predictions had been for cloud and rain. With setup complete by 9am we were ready to spring into action. Business was very slow to start off but as word spread around town that there were fun activities for kids down on the seafront the visitor numbers started to pick up.

Once we had worked out what lines to use to bring the visitors in the level of interest and the number of donatins rapidly increaced. Even more suprising was that visitors having made a donation for their can of beans re-donated the beans back again for us to resell.

By the end of the day, cut short by incoming bad weather, we had sold 95 cans of beans and still had 68 remaining. These will go straight to the Foodbank together with the final balance from the day, which  will be over £200.

A very big thank you to the visitors to Bexhill Fun Market for joining in with the fun and having such a generous spirit to make our efforts a success.

Well done Bexhill Lions Club for having the courage to plan and organise this new event with very little eveidence of how the day would plan out.