The International Basket Brigade is the annual campaign to provide food and gifts for people that need a hand – children, the elderly, hungry & homeless – during the December holiday season each year. To date, hundreds of teams of volunteers feed more than 2 million people in 400 cities in 74 countries annually. We currently have ten Basket Brigade teams across Australia. Our target for 2007 is to help 20,000! Throughout the holiday season International Basket Brigade volunteers deliver food, clothing, and hope to those who need it most. The Foundation would be honored to have you become a part of this truly wonderful event.

We are looking for coordinators and volunteers to help us meet these targets. Interested? Contact us. We will put you in contact with a Basket Brigade coordinator in your area. Or look at creating your own team. Speaking from experience as a coordinator – It is exhilarating, challenging and great fun!

We have many stories to share. But one that was personal for me was when we delivered our baskets to the Baptist Inner City Ministries church. Most of these were heavy. My car and my friend’s car were loaded to the brim and we had a ute on the way, also full of baskets. We needed help to unload but there was no-one around, apart from some men sitting nearby with their bottles of alcohol hidden in brown paper bags. The lady at the church said that they would not help. I went over and said hello and asked if there were two strong men that could give us a hand. After looking at one another, two men came over. I shook their hands, asked their names and thanked them for their help. I had the distinct impression that no-one had asked for their help in a long time and they had a challenge responding to that.

We unloaded and when the ute arrived, they helped with that also. When finished, we thanked them again, shook their hands and wished them a Merry Christmas. The look in their eyes was a thank you to us, something I will always remember. One of our group said “Did you have anything to give them”. I replied “We gave them something more precious than food or gifts. We gave them the opportunity to help someone, to actually be part of our community”.

It is not just the people that receive the baskets that are touched by the Basket Brigade. Every volunteer, old and young and people within the community are also affected.

"Treat people as if they were what they should be, and you help them become what they are capable of becoming”.
Johann von Goethe

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