Giving Back
Giving back... what's it all about?
Well, we believe that all businesses, big ones and little ones, have a responsibility and should give something back to the community in which they operate. Sounds a bit heavy for a little food business like us, but it's something we genuinely believe in.
Over the last few years, we haven't just talked the talk, we've walked the walk and done something. There are lots of things we do quietly, but we have made lots of noise about a couple of schemes which have been a tremendous success. In 2007, we ran our Treehugger Campaign, in 2008, we ran a return-bags campaign to raise money for the Jersey Cheshire Home.and in 2009 we supported Channel103fm and Help A Jersey Child. These schemes have resulted in tens of thousands of bags being re-used along with a donation to the charity concerned.
This year, we are going to support The Jersey Shelter Trust and we're really looking forward to working with them in the important work they do in looking after and supporting the homeless.
2010 Jersey Shelter Trust
We have always had a relationship with the Shelter Trust right back to when we opened our first shop in Colomberie back in 1996. During those first weeks of opening, someone suggested that instead of us eating any food left in the shop, we should give it to the Shelter to help feed the homeless. That was a much better idea, so we spoke to a young man called John Hodge and asked if he would like our food. He quickly said yes and so started a relationship that continues to this day. We have never made a song and dance about it but this year, simply because there are more and more homeless people in Jersey, we have decided to support the Shelter Trust with our Bag Returns scheme. They really need your help to continue the fantastic, but often forgotten, job they do in providing support and shelter to less fortunate people. So, as before, please collect your clean Mange Tout bags and bring them back. For every 50 bags we re-use we will donate £1.
2011(again) Jersey Shelter Trust
We have decided to help the Shelter Trust again as they are in the middle of rerefurbishing their St Mark's road premeses and need lots of beds, curtains, bathrooms and other homely stuff. Theses guys really do such a fantastic job but get very little support. Please, please, please collect your clean Mange Tout bags and bring them back and let's try and beat the 2010 figure. Don't forget, for every 50 bags we re-use we will donate £1. Come on, let's have sack fulls........
2009 Help A Jersey Child
In our little Island of high finance and beautiful beaches, it is easy to forget that there are young people who for one reason or another need a little help. Whether it's disability, illness or financial hardship, Help A Jersey Child is a local charity set up by Channel103 fm to help young people deal with some of the challenges they may face and we're really excited about getting involved. In 2009, we used our bag returns scheme to help the charity with a donation at the end of the year based on how many bags our customers brought back and we re-used. We re-used just under 30,000 bags with companies such as Mourant, Jersey Telecom, Royal Bank of Scotland and Royal Bank of Canada bringing back the most. We handed over our cheque to Channel103 for £600 in eary February 2010, so a big thank-you to everyone who supported the scheme.
2008 Jersey Cheshire Home
The Jersey Cheshire Home celebrated it's 25th anniversary in 2008 and we wanted to help. It is a little known charity but does fantastic work making the challenges faced by severely disabled people a little easier with care and support. Following on from our Treehugger campaign on 2007, we used our bag returns scheme to re-use bags and over the course of 2008, had over 36,000 bags returned. We were really pleased that we were able to hand over a cheque to the charity for £750. The local charity Chairman, Gregor Allan, was particulary delighted and expressed his real gratitude to all our customers who took part in the scheme.
2007 Treehugger!
We began the Treehugger Campaign in 2007 after one of our favourite customers, Marie Vibert, had a simple (and simply brilliant) idea of making a collection point in her office where everyone she worked with could leave their re-usable Mange Tout bags, and she would bring them all back to us.
In the old days, we used to offer a flapjack to anyone who brought back 50 Mange Tout bags as a fun incentive to get our customers recycling, but Marie asked if, instead of flapjacks, we could make a donation to the local charity Men of the Trees, so they could buy saplings. We thought it was a fantastic idea and we told all our customers, who started bringing bags of bags back, allowing us to re-use over 28,000 in 2007, which meant we could buy 280 saplings for planting. Thanks everyone!
- Did you know…
- Our yogurt is from Jersey Dairy