Pipers Way launch & Food Bank activities
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Published 9 Dec 2022 in Phil's blog
With only a few weeks to go before Christmas, it’s great to see all our stores and branches in the Christmas spirit along with another increase in member trade. With many offers and campaigns live, yesterday also saw the launch of the last store launch of the year in Pipers Way, Swindon.
A warm welcome to our new 15 colleagues as well as store manager Beth Murray. This concludes the £3.5 million pound Society investments in Food with 7 brand new stores opened this year. A huge well done to everyone involved in making this possible. Watch this space for more society investments in 2023!
Food bank activities - Ablewell Advice Food Bank visit in Walsall & Shrewsbury Food Bank
Last week I joined Food colleagues, Mark Taylor and Sarah Yates at the Ablewell Advice Food bank in Walsall. We got to see first-hand how the charity supports not only people with free, confidential and independent help but a food bank service for the local community. I even had the chance to weigh, sort and label donations that come in from the public, a service which is sadly continually on the rise. Meeting the staff and volunteers showed me how important this service is during a time when many are struggling more with the cost-of-living crisis. Watch our video to learn more.
This complemented my visit to the Food bank in Shrewsbury with colleague & Regional Community Ambassador John Street back in October.
Since our last visit at Christmas, demand has grown massively from around 380 food parcels per week to over 900 and this has put the Food Bank under serious pressure, especially regarding the supply of items. This Food bank is located in a Church property right in the centre of Shrewsbury and work has been undertaken to provide the best possible experience for visitors, including a quiet reflective outdoor seating area, café facilities and private meeting areas. There is even provision for growing their own produce! The Food Bank houses a stock of all products and organises the picking and packing of parcels. Most are collected, but with the support of a van, a delivery option to some of the more outlying areas is now possible.
The Shropshire Regional Community Group are supporting the Food Bank with resources via colleague volunteering and we are looking to provide a van to aid with deliveries. In addition, myself and the Executive are looking to support the Food Bank in the early New Year by holding a workshop at the Food Bank to help them organise their operational routines and processes to ensure that they operate as efficiently and effectively as possible.
Staying on the subject, we launched our Christmas Food bank appeal campaign last week. With donations in high demand, we know it’s a crucial time of the year when our communities need more help. Running until the end of the month, we are encouraging members to donate in-store or at till point. I will report back in January with an update on how it went and our future activities on this ever-increasing demand.
Euricse & ICA World Co-operative monitor
Last week, fellow exec members Alison Bain, Chief Marketing Officer and Pete Westall, Chief Values Officer, hosted a great session with the ICA’s entrepreneurial thinktank group. Joining over 200 people globally, it gave us a unique platform to showcase the great work we’ve been doing to develop membership digitally and how we’ve pioneered the change since our membership campaign launched in 2021. Our membership transformation in a short period of time has been phenomenal, with over 100k new members since the campaign launched, we have given more value and a frictionless experience increasing member trade by 6% alone. A big thank you to all the teams involved in moving our membership to the next level.
Ask me a Question – January
I would like to say thank you to everyone who has sent in questions to me following this month’s Q&A session, if you missed it, click here. As a reminder, if you would like to ask me a question (it can be on anything), send these across to your local colleague council representative for January’s edition. It forms part of our two-way feedback, so I’m always happy to talk to colleagues where possible.
And finally, good luck to England in their quarter-final against France tomorrow evening in the Football World Cup in Qatar!
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