From the start of the pandemic in 2020, when it became clear that people were struggling, we began making arrangements to get in bulk stores of non-perishable items, toiletries, and essential clothing, buying them in from other companies that were offering assistance and from supermarkets. To make things easier, we separated our organisation into two legal entities as a registered charity and as a community interest company.

The charity then set up a charity shop, supplying clothing, non-perishable food items, toiletries, etc in bulk. The CIC and the charity then worked with other groups [see partnership section] to get large amounts of items that were then parcelled up and delivered out to families around the city.

After the initial delay in receiving the funds from the Christmas Food & Essential Items Grant, we had to hit the road running. Fortunately, we had a team of volunteers already in place and groups and organisations who were willing to work with us. With the funding grant we were able to continue the bulk-buying through the charity, to increase our own in-house stock.

We first began assisting the groups that use our facilities when the pandemic first hit, but since then we have expanded our services to assist others, working in partnership with other similar charitable and community groups as ourselves to broaden our area of effect. The funds received enabled us to continue helping to support around 175-250 individuals and families in their homes on a weekly basis, especially the elderly, single parents, those on low income and the vulnerable, by getting to them the necessary supplies and support with bills, especially utilities given the announcements of a large price hike in energy bills that would adversely affect those on low-income or otherwise struggling. Many of the beneficiaries (although not exclusively) are families associated with the groups that support our facilities.

Our facilities where we gather and distribute items is in the city centre, but we have volunteers that take supplies and food parcels to people throughout the entire city, such as Hanley, Fenton and Burslem, and further afield. As part of the ongoing service that we are providing for these community groups, we have been upgrading our food, clothes and essential items distribution network – incorporating the local Scouts and Guides, at least ten separate faith groups, the YMCA and several other community organisations and businesses – helping those who live further out or are unable to access food deliveries due to either finance or unavailability and extending the services we’re providing to our beneficiaries.

We are a part of the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) community, with groups from ethnicities such as Fijian, Czech, Slovakian, Filipino, Caribbean, African (7-10 different countries), and Asian, as well as the wider community. A large number of these group members work in the NHS and care industry on the frontline, which means that their families were adversely affected by the Covid-19 situation. So we have put in place a range of mechanisms to support these individuals and families, i.e. food, clothing, essential goods and setting up online platforms to maintain the lines of communication and to extend the lines of our interpretation service. This means that all of our groups are therefore able to continue their work and support to their own target groups.