We know it is almost Valentines day so it is definitely too late for Happy New Year comments. So we will just wish you all a great 2024.
The January update is a little delayed as we have been cracking on with our New Years resolutions. Lets see how we get on with them
So what have we been doing in this first month of the year? Firstly we have continued the hunt for a home for our community Cafe. It was our main aim when we started this journey to provide a community space in Sittingbourne. We are hoping to have some good news on this front soon but always keen for having a “plan B” if you can think of potential locations feel free to drop us a line – we’d love to hear from you.
Already the year has seen 42 food parcels delivered, 126 people fed and 500kg of food distributed. Taking us past the 500 individuals fed and 2 tonnes of food distributed in our 7 months of helping the community. A BIG thankyou to Trevor Williamsfor working so hard to provide this service . We did see an advert for the Mayor’s Civic Awards online recently maybe you agree that Trevor should be nominated
– feel free to, we’re sure Trevor wont mind! https://swale.gov.uk/…/nominate-someone-for-the-mayor…
We have been hard at work on the fundraising front also with plenty of Grant applications submitted and our own easyfunding cash back account setup – so you can now help donate without using your own money. https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/Just login to the App / website, create an account, select us as your chosen charity and then search for the online shop that you want to go shopping with. Swale Community Care Project then get the cashback offer. For anyone else that would like to support us please check the various options in the “featured” section of our Group page. Every little helps someone else.
It was great to pop into Morrisons Sittingbourne to catch up with Sal Candy from Sittingbourne Morrisons Community and Charlotte who will be taking over the reigns from Sal in the near future. Always a laugh and insightful conversation when meeting up to explore how we can work together more. It was great to have received the £374 from their Christmas Giving Tree campaign – thankyou so much to Morrisons customers for their generosity and support this will go a long way in feeding those in need.
As it was nearing Sal’s last week with Morrisons we would like to wish Sal all the best with her new career adventure.
Continuing on the Collaboration theme we attended Swale Borough Councils “Cost of Living Forum” with some great presentations and conversations with others within the voluntary sector. We have also signed up to the recently formed Swale Voluntary Alliance – working with others in the voluntary sector is a great way to maximise our efforts in supporting the community and in sharing knowledge and resources to better help others. We are looking forward to the upcoming workshops and getting involved.
Our final team activity for this update was our days Emergency First Aid at Work training at Swale Community and Voluntary Services. Some of the content was a refresher but with plenty of new ideas and tips to takeaway. Thankyou for the team there who looked after us and to Neil the tutor who made the course very relaxed and interactive.
Its been good to start new relationships and catch up on others. Another great month of collaboration with new parties and continuation of established working relationships we have the following thankyou’s to share:
– mhs homes group for your ongoing support
– Sittingbourne Morrisons Community / Sal Candy for the continued foodbank support and the Generous donations from the Christmas Giving Tree 2023
– Neighbourly for approving us for food collections
– Aldi Sheerness for their food donations
– Swale Community and Voluntary Services for our Emergency First Aid at Work Training
– to all those small businesses, individuals and families that we have thanked personally on our group page – thankyou for your caring support.