Community
As a business, we exist to be a force for good in the lives of our communities. Whether it be helping with holiday meal programmes, working with local organisations to redistribute food waste, championing sport for young people through our Sports Opportunity Fund or the fantastic charity fund raising and volunteering that goes on at each of our locations we’re proud to help our local communities thrive.
Read about some of our recent community projects and activities here.
Supply ChainSchool holiday meals
Around 1.5 million children in England are eligible for free school meals. That can make the school holidays difficult for some families with extra food costs.
We’ve helped to bridge that gap working with partners on holiday meals projects. We joined up with Leicester City Council and Leicester City Football Club on a holiday food programme to support children in Leicester who normally have a free school meal. The programme provided families with all the ingredients they need to make five tasty lunches at home over a half term holiday, together with simple instructions for making the meals.
Read the full story
Helping the local vaccination effort
We have been supporting Leicestershire vaccination efforts by delivering complimentary lunch bags for healthcare staff and volunteers at eight Covid-19 vaccination centres across the county.
During a 15-week period between January and June 2021, more than 30,000 lunch bags were provided in over 1,100 delivery drops to vaccination centres in Melton Mowbray, Oakham, Leicester (The Kube, Peepul Centre and Prajapati Hall), Charnwood, Measham and Hinckley. The effort has been masterminded by Samworth Brothers’ Coldcall delivery team.
Coldcall Operations Head Paula Shaw said: “The team has been delighted to support the vaccination effort with this service. We have had fantastic feedback from the centres. The lunch bags provided staff and volunteers with a convenient lunchtime option, which they found very helpful.”
Pandemic support
Samworth Brothers businesses and brands stepped up to help local communities through the pandemic in many ways.
Distributing food surplus… and more
We worked in close collaboration with food surplus charity FareShare and our food redistributor partner The Company Shop providing surplus food for their network of charitable food donations.
Teams in Leicestershire helped deliver emergency food hampers to vulnerable families plus supported local community organisations in other ways including food drops to Leicestershire hospitals and other key worker locations, such as Leicester Prison and local fire and ambulance stations.
Read the full story
Helping charities fund apprenticeships
We have diverted £51,000 of our Apprentice levy funds to support the training of seven newly-employed apprentices at the Argyle Community Trust, the official charity for Plymouth Argyle Football Club.
One of the Argyle Community Trust apprentices, Joseph Cooper, is undertaking his apprenticeship through the Level 3 Community Sport and Health Officer apprenticeship standard. This apprenticeship seeks to use the medium of sport as a catalyst to drive positive change across social and physical platforms.
Joseph sought to follow this route because “it allows me to use sports and wellbeing to engage with a variety of people in the community. Sports can be used to motivate, get healthy and even engage the hardest to reach people in the greater community. No matter anyone’s status, upbringing and ability, everyone deserves the access to sports for physical or mental wellbeing, as well as enjoyment, freedom and challenges.”
Helping our near neighbours
The St Matthew’s Children’s Action Group is just around the corner from our Walkers & Deli Sausage site in Leicester. The charity runs after school and holiday sessions for children. Walkers Deli & Sausage, supported by other Samworth Brothers colleagues and businesses, are working closely with the project.
Last year Soreen, Bradgate Bakery and Walkers Deli & Sausage Co. came together to prepare and distribute 4,680 lunch bags to 260 underprivileged children the charity supports over the entire summer holiday.
Walkers Deli & Sausage Co is also involved with a children’s play project, What Cabin. Last year, a team in the business mobilised colleagues, suppliers and contractors to raise an incredible £16,000 for the project. Part of the donation was dedicated to over 100 Christmas gifts for local children, while the rest of the funds were pledged to support What Cabin in 2021.
Kuljit Singh from the charity, said: “Many families have had a loss of income and children have spent time without play outdoors and with less food at home. Thank you for supporting the local community.”
Sports Opportunity Fund
The Samworth Brothers Sports Opportunity Fund supports deserving community sports projects close to Samworth Brothers’ locations. The Fund was launched in October 2013 and has made over 200 financial awards and commitments to date, totalling over £2 million.
Organisations and sports clubs that have benefited from our awards have included:
- Leicester Warriors Basketball Club
- Waterfront Sports and Education Academy
- Leicester Electric Cricket Club
- MOVE charity
- Saffron Young People’s Project
Charity Challenge
What is the Charity Challenge?
Samworth Brothers Charity Challenge is a fundraising triathlon-style event which takes place every two years and has raised more than £2.2 million for charity since it was launched in 2007.
Sign up for June 2022
Postponed this year due to the pandemic, the next Samworth Brothers Charity Challenge will be held on 11 and 18 June 2022.
Our focus is on making the 2022 event the greatest fundraiser yet. Our previous event record is £385,000 so let’s use this additional preparation time to smash that total. So many charities and other good causes have suffered greatly from a massive decline in charitable donations during Covid-19 and the amazing level of fund raising that the Charity Challenge generates is needed more than ever.
Are you up for that Challenge?
We’ll be keeping you up-to-date through the year with news of Charity Challenge preparations, plus providing lots of training and fund-raising tips.
Keep in touch via the website, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
2019 Charity Challenge raised £318,000
In June 2019, teams in the Samworth Brothers Charity Challenge triumphed over tough conditions to raise an amazing £318,000 for charity. Nearly 100 teams of four took part in the two gruelling 10-hour Charity Challenge event on Exmoor. Samworth Brothers’ people, customers and suppliers were involved, and each team committed to raising a minimum of £2,000 to the charity of their choice.
