Foodbank Free Family Fun Days Ensure No One Misses Out

This summer, Faithworks Foodbanks have hosted several free family fun days, and we are so grateful to everyone who helped make these events possible!

The summer holidays can be a challenging time for families, with 88% of UK parents saying that the summer holidays place financial and emotional pressure on families, and 1 in 8 families struggling to afford basic summer essentials like suncream and sunhats for their children*. These Foodbanks events are much more than just a nice day out: they provide families with the opportunity to spend quality time together and create lasting memories, without having to worry about finances.

The summer fun was launched with the SMILE free annual lone parent fair at St James’s Church, Poole, with Poole Lifecentre and Foodbank in early July. The day was filled with bubbles, magic shows, glitter tattoos, crafts, fair games, raffles, and food! The Friendly Food club provided burritos for over hundred attendees, Jim’s Reptiles were a huge hit giving children and parents the opportunity to hold snakes and creepy crawlies, Dorset Pizza Kitchen gave out wonderful, freshly baked pizzas, and Diamond Face Painting brought many happy unicorns and dinosaurs to life.

At the end of July, Wimborne Foodbank+ held their free family fun day, as part of the Wimborne Town of Culture. There were games, penalty shootout, competitions, arts and crafts, circus skills, ice cream and much more. It was amazing to see so many local businesses and organisations coming to support our event, such as The Friendly Food Club, Jamie Jigsaw, Mad4Animals, Diamond Face Painting, and Radio Wimborne.

The late summer fun continued with Christchurch Foodbank+’s day of free fun for families with fair games, hair braiding, biscuit decorating, and circus skills. It was wonderful to have Wild Science there, providing hands-on animal experiences for young and old alike, and we are grateful to Christchurch Roundtable for making a new Splat the Rat game for attendees to enjoy. A big thank you also goes to the Richard Porter Family Foundation for the funding grant, and a generous anonymous donor, which made the day possible.

And the fun doesn’t end there! On 5th September from 12 – 4pm, Wimborne Community Garden will be hosting their fun day of stalls, games, BBQ, and an amazing scarecrow competition!

We want to say a huge thank you to every single one of the staff, volunteers, and businesses who helped make these events possible – we really couldn’t have done it without you! Whether it was baking a cake, donating a prize, running a stall, planning a craft, braiding hair, or supporting on the day, thank you for your help!

Find out more about Wimborne Community Garden’s event on Facebook below…

*Save the Children 2026