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Companies across the UK have been going above and beyond for their communities; the money raised, items donated, and time spent helping others has been incredible. BITA members Paul Sanger from Traffic Management London Ltd and Michael Barratt MBE told us about this amazing story at Manorfield School in Tower Hamlets.
The school is in one of the most deprived areas in the UK, nationally, 13.6% of school children are eligible for free school dinners, but in Tower Hamlets that figure is 33%. For Manorfield School in particular, 65%+ of the students are eligible for free school meals.
There were many families from the area that would be struggling with access to nutrition during the school closures, and headteacher Paul Jackson realised that there were opportunities through businesses for innovative thinking and exciting projects.
Three years ago, Manorfield School managed an event with the Dorchester Hotel to raise funds for a new school nursery. One half marathon later and they had enough money for construction of the new facilities. The relationship with the hotel has remained, with the student choir singing at the Dorchester over Christmas, so Paul felt it was time to take things further.
“I realised that there were all these opportunities available, but I needed to be proactive and make things happen” says headteacher Paul Jackson. “I’m not afraid to approach people for help. As a result, the school has ended up working with a host of incredible people that are really positive and have the children’s interests at heart. So much so that we have managed to achieve in 24 hours things that would have normally taken years.”
This is no exaggeration. The week before lockdown the regular catering company only supplied one member of staff because of sickness absence. The school had to remain open for some of the most vulnerable students and children of key workers, so this was a serious issue.
After a phone call to the Dorchester, the hotel sent the head chef from the staff canteen and the canteen manager to prepare food for the students. These were swiftly followed by staff from the restaurant chain Ottolenghi, who in the face of closures first sent excess food, and then staff, to the school to cover shortfall.
Having capacity to help more people, Paul then decided that they should start helping the wider community. “We started off making food parcels for 200 people a week, and we are now up to 1,300. This is all with donated produce, food purchased through an emergency fundraising appeal and hard-working staff and community members volunteering their skills.”
Charmingly, the chefs have been working with the students attending the school, now up to 126 per day (the school has 736 pupils in total), to teach them cooking skills, and incorporating food grown in the school’s edible playground by the children, in the meals they prepare.
“The support from the community has been incredible,” says Paul; “Hovis are donating 900 loaves of bread a week, Original Marquees have donated a marquee to increase capacity for a socially distanced classroom and dining room, and other companies have donated signage, fencing and plants. The property development company Regal London raised £26,000 for our food parcel program.”
We are so pleased to hear how, across the UK and Ireland, businesses have been stepping up to help some of our most vulnerable communities. The innovative projects and ground-breaking new ways of thinking that have been deployed, are truly inspiring.