Thank you, Food Bank Update & Phone Co-op Donation to Elmore

Thank you

We know that you are doing an incredible job, going above and beyond to help our members, customers and fellow colleagues, whilst adapting to this ever-changing and challenging time. We continue to be really grateful for all you’re doing, thank you.

 

Here are a few of our colleagues from our Bath Road Food Store in Cheltenham showing their support.

 

Food Bank Update

 

We have now had over £9,500 donations made to our food bank fund through online, through a QR code or at the till in Food Stores. That, combined with the original Society donation of £25,000, brings the fund really close to our £35,000 target.

As a result of those donations, we have been able to support 40 foodbank groups so far, enabling vital funding and access to products to support those in need. We have had a range of great feedback from these groups praising our helpful and friendly Food Store colleagues in enabling access to products, and their thanks for our help in ensuring that people won’t go hungry during this time. 

We still need donations to support this work – whether donations of products into our food bank bins or donations of cash. It would be great to have a real push on this over the next few days to help us break through the £35,000 target. You can find out more about this here.

 

The Phone Co-op & Elmore Community Services

Many of the community groups we partner with have had to make rapid changes to the support they offer to the vulnerable through lock-down. Elmore Community Services, a group which supports vulnerable people suffering from mental health issues in Oxford, is one of those – having to change the way it delivers its services, switching from home visits to online and telephone support.

At the same time, it was facing a sudden fall in its fundraising and a rapid upturn in demand for its services from people struggling during the lockdown. Our team at The Phone Co-op have stepped in to help through two ways. Firstly, we’ve given the group free calls for three months on the Phone Co-op hosted conferencing platform so that the Elmore Community Services team can host group chats with clients, and secondly, we’ve donated 30 smartphones to complement that.

Elmore’s CEO, Tom Hayes, has expressed his real gratitude for this, noting that the support we’ve given has helped, including how this donation in his view is genuinely life-saving for some of his clients. It’s great to see the team at The Phone Co-op support this, and our thanks to all of them who made this happen.

 

Midcounties AGM

Given the restrictions arising from the coronavirus pandemic, we will be holding the Society’s Annual General Meeting in May online. We are planning to make the event as engaging and interactive as we can ensuring members will have the opportunity to raise questions to the Board and senior management, in a live environment and for the first time, to vote online.

The AGM will take place on Saturday 16 May from 10:00am – 12:00 noon.

Further details and how to register can be found here.

This is a great opportunity to understand more about your Society, and we’d be grateful for your support in joining the meeting.

 

Thumbs Up #TeamMC - How you can get involved

We want you to share a picture of yourself and/or your team with your thumbs up and include a sentence outlining why you’ve given yourself, your team or a team member a ‘thumbs up’ today, along with the hashtag #TeamMC.

E.g. it could be some great customer feedback you’ve had for going above and beyond. Or something you’ve done to help the community that they’re proud of. Or just that the team is Okay.

You can share these either on your group's Facebook groups or by simply sending it to thumbsup@midcounties.coop

We will be posting regular Thumbs Up montages on the homepage of Colleagues Connect, so remember to log on and be reminded of what makes our Society so great, our colleagues. You can also take the chance to give them a pat on the back yourself by commenting on the post.

Check out the latest update here.

We want to ensure we are doing everything we can to help you at this time, and if you have any further ideas or comments then please, let us know using the comments section below or via your line manager. Thank you again for all YOUR efforts, it is appreciated