Swindon Food Collective helps people living in Swindon and the surrounding area who are experiencing financial hardship and finding it difficult to provide food for themselves, their family or dependants.
Donations are collected from individuals, shops, churches and businesses. These are taken to SFC’s warehouse, where they are sorted and packed into emergency food parcels, ready to be delivered to their 11 distribution centres, which are open five days a week.
Kathryn Grobler, Outbound Sales Manager at OneFamily, was one of the volunteers. She said, “Volunteering in the warehouse was so rewarding as each package helps someone put food on the table. It feels great to be part of something that supports so many people in our local community have hot meals in the coming cold winter months.”
In the last 12 months the Swindon Food Collective has distributed over 122 tonnes of stock, which includes food, toiletries and household cleaning products, to 10,891 people. This means around 98,000 meals have been provided.
However, the level of donations coming in has not kept pace with the increased demand for help, so the charity has been spending up to £3,000 a month on stock for their food parcels.
This expenditure has been supported through grants and financial donations, without which SFC would not be able to support as many vulnerable locals.
Cher Smith MBE, Manager of the Swindon Food Collective, said “The support and effort that OneFamily gave when they joined us for the day was immense. During harvest we get many donations from schools, churches and community groups, all of which need sorting and packing into boxes ready for distribution. The team spent the day undertaking this and several other tasks that help the warehouse run smoothly during this extremely busy period”.
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Notes to Editors
About OneFamily
OneFamily is a member-owned financial services company that offers lifetime ISAs, lifetime mortgages, junior ISAs, child trust funds, bonds and over 50s life cover.
We have over 45 years’ experience of being a trusted provider of financial solutions, with nearly 2 million customers and over £5.5 billion in funds under management at the end of 2022.
We are the UK’s biggest child trust fund provider, holding over 25% of the market.
Supporting our members and their communities
At OneFamily, we’re owned by our members for our members – and doing right by them is at the heart of our business.
We don’t have shareholders to pay dividends to, so we reinvest our profits to provide quality products and services for the benefit of our members.
We think that financial products should be accessible to everyone regardless of how much money they have to invest. That’s why our products have low investment levels and minimum contributions, giving more people the opportunity to save regardless of their circumstances.
Inspiring Better Futures
Our Inspiring Better Futures vision underpins our commitment to doing the right thing at every level for our members and customers, colleagues and communities.
The Inspiring Better Futures vision is built on 3 pillars – Members and customers, colleagues and communities.
Our focus is on long-term sustainability, so we can continue to be relevant and impactful to our members and communities.
Access to education and training
The costs of further education and training can be a barrier to many young people and their families. This is why we offer OneFamily customers the opportunity to apply for a Young Person’s Education Grant of up to £250 – for someone aged 15-19 – to help meet these costs, when they would otherwise struggle without financial assistance.
The grant can be used towards study materials, specialist uniform, travel costs or a laptop/tablet.
Applications are open throughout the year, and grants are awarded following a random computerised draw.
We’ve improved the lives of over 3,400 people through our individual grants since 2015.
Charity Partnerships
Supporting our communities has been a key focus of ours for many years. We’ve established partnerships with local and national charities that champion access to education and improving life chances for people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
For more information on how we support our members and communities see:
Education Grants
Charity Partnerships