Thank you, Bags of Difference & Helping to Feed the Nation’s Children

Thank you

I wanted to start this week with a thank you.  I’m truly grateful for your commitment, hard work and dedication in serving our members and customers and supporting our local communities, not only during this second period of lockdown but throughout the year, thank you.  In recognition of your hard work and to show our gratitude we will shortly be announcing a range of exciting colleague rewards, something to help with the Christmas shop, to celebrate the festive season with colleagues and your family and the possibility of winning some fantastic prizes. Our way of saying thank you and helping you to have a great Christmas, look out for more details.

Bags of difference

You might be aware that today is Children in Need and we, along with other retailers won’t be doing the usual fundraising activities that we would like to because of Covid.  However, I am pleased to let you know that we have agreed to donate monies from the sale of carrier bags for this week to Children In Need, which I hope you agree is the right thing to do.

Further to this, we also recognise that because of the current situation, food poverty and the use of food banks continues to grow and therefore as part of our continued support for our food bank partners we will be reopening the Food Bank fund, with monies raised from the sale of carrier bags between 16th November to 24th December being donated on behalf of the Society.  This will be in addition to driving in-store donations and raising awareness throughout December.  

Helping to Feed the Nation’s Children

Earlier this week, I was pleased to hear the news that the Government have now agreed to action the National Food Strategy recommendations, including providing Free School Meals for children in need across the UK during school holidays and increasing the value of Healthy Start vouchers from £3.10 to £4.25 per week.  We were part of Marcus Rashford led Child Food Poverty Task Force, working alongside national retailers and other Co-op Societies, so this is welcome news. 

Co-operative Community Support in Australia

2020 has not been the best year for many of us but you may remember at the beginning of the year, Australia suffered terrible wild fires which not only cost lives but destroyed homes, communities and the ecological wildlife. As a Society we joined other Co-ops from across the World to show our support, raising over £11,000.

Last week I was proud to receive a thank you from Melina Morrison, Chief Executive Officer, Business Councils of Co-operatives and Mutuals & Brian Bennett, Managing Director, Australians Mutuals Foundations for our concerted effort in raising much-needed funds for the East Coast of Australia bushfires.  It’s a fantastic example of global co-operation and our #ValuesinAction and it was great to hear about the difference it made to those communities. If you missed it, you can find out more here.

Energy Generators secure Fair Tax Mark

Finally, Midcounties and the Phone Co-op were two of the first 3 businesses to secure the Fair Tax mark back in 2014. The mark recognises those businesses & organisations who pay the right amount of corporation tax at the right time and in the right place. We have been a supporter of the Mark since then, encouraging others to follow our lead.  It was great to see our Community Generator partners, Westmill Wind Farm and Westmill Solar become fair tax accredited this week. We use the energy they produce as part of our Co-op Energy Community power tariff, have had a long association with them and are pleased that they have been recognised in this way. I believe this is something all businesses should do, and they now join more than 55 businesses nationwide who are certified.

As always, if you have any questions or comments then please leave them below.