Helping Our Local Communities Thrive

Every year we give hundreds of grants worth thousands of pounds to community organisations and charities in the areas where we trade. Plus, our colleagues roll their sleeves up and spend three days a year volunteering. This is the difference we’ve made locally this year with your help…

Colleagues supporting local charities

You, our colleagues, helped to raise over £172,000 in support to our Local Community Grants and Community Funding opportunities to almost 200 groups in the last year. What an achievement!

You’ve raised money in many different ways, including six colleagues from Forest of Dean Food stores taking to the skies in October to raise over £3,200 for Gloucestershire Young Carers with a skydive. 

The money you’ve helped to raise has such a massive impact on the groups that we support. It enables them to grow and expand their services, support families in times of need and build the self-esteem of children and young people.

For example, our Banbury Charity Partner – BYHP (Supporting Young People in Housing Need), said: “We are so grateful for the continued support offered as part of our partnership with Midcounties Co-op,” and one of their service users commented, “You’ve helped me to change my life beyond what I ever imagined”.

Feedback like this really does make you realise the impact your actions are having on people’s lives – let’s keep up the good work in 2022.

 

Fundraising for community defibrillators

Our colleagues have raised £11,500 so far to help us achieve our aim of fitting defibrillators at all Food Markets and Regional Community Hub sites, and we’re on target to have raised enough to do this by July 2022. Your fundraising activities this year included:

• Christine Morgan from our Morton-in-Marsh store ‘braving the shave’ to raise £700.

• Colleagues from Radbrook cycling over 550 miles in-store on a static bike to raise £1,300.

A really big thank you to everyone who has and will continue to support fundraising to provide this critical life-saving kit in our communities.

 

Making a difference to young people

This year we’ve made a difference to young people in many ways.

The six colleagues who took part in this year’s London Marathon raised over £10,000 for The Outward Bound Trust – a charity that gives young people life-changing experiences and the opportunity to challenge themselves to find out what they’re really capable of.

The partnership our Travel team launched with Go Beyond earlier in the year has meant that for every Co-op Holiday booking, £1 is donated to this important charity. The charity gives vulnerable young people and those facing challenges at home the chance to take a much-needed break.

We also worked with Dudley CVS and MBC, Walsall and Shropshire Councils to provide over 10,000 meals for vulnerable children during the summer holidays, linked up our partner school in Walsall with their local food bank to increase donations and sponsored the Create & Cook competition, encouraging young people to cook with local produce.  

Plus, our Utilities team donated £10,000 worth of 4G tablets to our partner schools to help disadvantaged children access home learning during the second lockdown.

 

Adding community spaces to stores

As well as volunteering and fundraising, we’ve stepped up to support our communities in some other meaningful ways this year:

• We invited local charity Cotswold Riding for the Disabled to open its first charity shop inside our Longlevens food store this year. In its first three months it has taken over £7,800.

• There is also a community space beside the charity shop in Longlevens which is being used by community groups, including a domestic abuse charity and a Knit & Natter group.  If you know a community group that might benefit from this space at Longlevens, let the community team know (email below).

• We are excited to have launched a brand-new enterprise hub in partnership with local employment charity, Aspire. Based within our Cowley food store, the hub offers workshops, 1:1 meetings and peer group sessions to build a stronger, more inclusive local economy. The hub will also act as a base for emerging enterprises and entrepreneurs, providing business advice, micro-grants and access to IT equipment. 

 

If you would like to get involved with fundraising for your Regional Community partner or Keeping it Local charity in 2022, get in touch with the community team by emailing: yourcoop.community@midcounties.coop