Food waste recycling specialist Warrens Group is supporting the Greggs Foundation in providing 150 children with free breakfasts every day.
The Newton Aycliffe-based firm is supporting three schools across Bishop Auckland and Darlington, including Northwood Primary School, where Warrens' regional sales manager Richard Skelton recently paid a visit. Charlotte Nelson, school business manager at Northwood Primary, said: "The breakfast club is very important as being able to provide breakfast for our children is invaluable. In addition to giving pupils a healthy start to the day, the clubs aim to encourage the children to chat and engage with school staff before their lessons begin and really enjoy it. We’re grateful to Greggs and generous companies like Warrens for making it possible."
Mr Skelton added: "It is a privilege to be able to lend our support to the Greggs Foundation and assist in combatting such a key issue that many families are facing. No child should go hungry and we’re passionate about the role we can play in supporting those within the community that need our help. We are proud to have supported Northwood Primary and two other schools in the area since 2017, which since the beginning of the partnership has provided thousands of children with the most important meal of the day."
Read more: High street giants Greggs and Primark launch second fashion collection
Lynne Hindmarsh, breakfast club manager of the Gregg’s Foundation, added: "Warrens Group are wonderful partners who have sponsored three local breakfast clubs in schools in Bishop Auckland and Darlington since October 2017, ensuring around 150 pupils access a free breakfast each school day. Without the continued support of Warrens those children may otherwise go without.
"Through breakfast clubs such as this, we’re able to support over 48,000 children each day nationally, and we cannot do this alone. That is why we’re delighted to work with partners such as Warrens Group helping to provide these children with breakfast and ensure a good start to their day."
North East charity Journey Enterprises is helping adults with learning disabilities to cook up exciting new skills with funding from Newcastle Building Society.
The organisation, which celebrates its 40th anniversary next year, provides specialist support for adults with learning disability. With
four Day Centres, Blyth, Hexham, Newcastle and Bishop Auckland, its services aim to help adults with learning disabilities develop life and work skills, and to lead active, inclusive and fulfilling lives.
With the support of a £3,000 grant from the Newcastle Building Society Community Fund, administered by the Community Foundation Tyne & Wear, the charity has bought two Norseman mobile cooking units which include hobs, ovens and storage space. These are being used at the former Shandon Way Community Centre which became Journey’s Newcastle Day Centre in April 2021.
The grant has also enabled Journey to install a pizza oven in the garden from where it will be selling the food its clients make to local people via a new social enterprise. Maggie Leadbeater, Journey’s operations manager and safeguarding lead, said: “For some of our Service Users, working with us provides the first time they’ve had the chance to learn to cook for themselves and you can see the confidence that gaining new kitchen skills gives them.
“Whether they use these skills at home or to go in to part-time employment in the food sector, our Norseman units will give Service
Users a wonderful platform to practise. Being able to share their skills with local people from our amazing pizza is very important for Journey. We always run programmes where we can provide a service to the local community and this gives us a great
opportunity to expand our community kitchen."
Staff at North Tyneside-based Carney Consultancy and sister company Carney CDM are aiming to raise £3,000 for the North East branch of the Lighthouse Club Construction Charity which provides support to construction workers and their families.
By taking part in this year's Great North Run, the Carney team aims to support the charity which provides emotional, physical and financial wellbeing support, and is run without public funding. Runners include Angela Carney, managing director at Carney Consultancy and director at Carney CDM; her partner, Dave Carney; Caroline Morton, director at Carney CDM; Martin Crammond, director at Carney Consultancy and Carney CDM; his partner, Rebecca White; Hafsa Ghaffar and Ethan Armstrong, business administrator apprentices; Kerry Benson, health and safety assistant and Jamie Clark, health and safety advisor at Carney Consultancy.
Also joining the Carney team are Carl Gilbert, construction site manager at STP Construction and John Heslop, HM inspector of health and safety at the Health and Safety Executive. Angela Carney, said: “The Lighthouse Club supports those in the frontline. The trades don’t get as near enough recognition as the professionals and that is why it is so important to support them.
“The charity provides emotional, physical and financial wellbeing support to construction workers and their families, relying on the generosity of those within the industry. This is something that I am very passionate about. So much so, that this year, I launched a mental health initiative, ‘Come on Lads Let’s Talk."
“It is a mental health awareness programme to support the wellbeing of men in construction, the sector with the highest number of male suicides, year on year. We offer face-to-face, online, telephone and ‘walk and talk’ counselling or therapy with trained professionals, with the first six sessions paid for by Carney Consultancy. The more we can do to help construction workers the better. We have already raised £1,500 for the Lighthouse Club and we are well on our way to our target of £3,000. In terms of the Great North Run, we have team members of mixed abilities. Some will be looking to break personal best performances while others will be soaking up the atmosphere and enjoying the day.”
READ NEXT:
