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Make A Real Change In Someone’s Life
Swale has some of the highest levels of child, fuel and financial poverty in Kent. Regions such as Murston, Sheppey, Leysdown & Teynham have consistently been in the county and national top 10% for poverty since 2015. This is without the impact of the pandemic and current cost of living crisis. 10% of those living in Swale are also categorised with Fuel Poverty. With 152,000+ population in 2021 this means that 1,500+ are living with financial and fuel poverty. Of these 29000+ are over the age of 65 (20% population). Many of these over the age 65 live in the more rural areas of the borough and often have mobility or transport challenges.
In our last 12 months we acheived…
Food parcels delivered
People fed (45% under 18 yrs old)
Tonnes of food distributed
We have raised just over £44k in donations and grants including community grant lottery funding & Swale Borough Council community grant towards our community café project.
We have started to build a network of relationships with local food suppliers through their community champions and Neighbourly. These include, Morrisons, M&S, Asda, Lidl & Aldi.
We have partnered with Sittingbourne, Milton & district Scouts to support members and volunteers alike but also to provide opportunities to work together and help in the community for some of our planned 2025 projects. They have a badge for almost everything nowadays.
Working with the Swale Borough Councils Cost of Living Forum we have supported other local groups with donations and have a support agreement in place with the Councils Housing team to support their clients with food and hygiene parcels. Often at short notice and to those who only have what they are carrying. This support included a group of us participating in the annual overnight rough sleeper count with the council’s team – a great experience to see how they work and those that they help
There has been lots of fund raising, meeting the community, listening to the public and other organisations, learning how to be an efficient organisation and with a bit of training thrown in.
I am sure that we have missed lots of positive moments, it has been a roller coaster second year.
How You Can Help
Hunger Relief
Every donation made goes towards delivering food packages to those in need.
Volunteer
Fancy getting involved to support your local community? Apply today.
Amazon Wishlist
You can gift us resources to support the charity and cafe using our Amazon Wishlist. We are always in need of essentials.
CASHBACK
We have partnered with easyfundraising, a cash back service where your cashback can be donated to the charity.
Click here for more info.
Community cafe
Visit our cafe, every purchase made supports the charity with all profits going towards feeding the community
Our Mission
We have signed up to the Swale Voluntary Alliance which brings together the voluntary sector in Swale as a collaboration of ideas, services and funding generation this will work in conjunction with Swale Borough Councils Cost of Living Forum. We have high hopes for this really expanding on our teams raison d’etre to make sure everyone gets supported and no one gets missed out.
Our Home delivery food parcel service will continue to support the community, however 2025 is going to be year of the Swale Community Care Projects community café – Heather House Community Cafe. This is our next organisation challenge to develop in partnership with Sittingbourne & Sheppey Helping Ukraine, having found a suitable and central venue for our community space and fully refurbished and repurposed the premises. A big thankyou to Age UK Kent Rivers and The Trail Group for enabling such great progress in a short period of time. Having already served 1,493 warm meals, 2,481 warm drinks and hosted 100+ community group sessions our aim is to expand our services to maximise community support.
Our pipeline projects include:
Community Cafe
Enhance our Cafe services , accessibility and community utilisation. Continuing the availability of low cost food, warm, safe and friendly space and a support bubble for those that visit.
Clothes Bank
In conjuction with Kent & Medway Community Sharewear, a location/service to donate and provide clothing.
Walk in sessions
A local support service for those that need it.
MORE COMING IN 2025
Of course it would be amiss of us to not include working with MHS Homes through out 2024 and the teams in the many fundraising events, raising the awareness of what we do and the challenges that households across the UK are facing at this time. Including how we can help. We are honoured to have been your Charity of the year 2024 and eternally grateful for the helping us lay the foundations for future success. Thankyou.
Donate Today or Get Involved