Volunteer Newsletter
Autumn 2023
Welcome from Anne Earle, Operations Team Chair
Hi everyone,
A warm welcome to the return of the Second Helpings Newsletter. And thanks to Chantal for leading the revival of this communication which several of you told us at the AGM you were keen to see again.
We continue to be as busy as ever serving the community. In a few weeks, we will be reaching out to some new customers. The beginning of November sees the start of our new project with Evergreen which will take place on Friday mornings. We will prepare "goodie bags" for housebound people with soup, bread and a piece of fruit. Evergreen volunteers will take care of the delivery side. We are looking for a project assistant for Friday mornings specifically for this project (see Volunteer Vacancies). Numbers will be quite small to start with and the maximum will be 20. We have had a generous donation to fund this from NFU Stamford which Evergreen are matching.
Later this month on 27th October we are holding our first ever "Open Day". This will be in the Prayer Room in the Church. Operations Team members will be present 10am - 4pm and we are asking everyone to come and talk to us (please email team@secondhelpings.org.uk) if you are not able to come in person). We want your ideas, your opinions good and bad, nothing is off limits. We all want Second Helpings to be the best it can be. So come and tell us what’s right and what’s wrong - we want to listen.
Most of you will have met Jacob McCrone our new Operations Manager who has been with us for a few weeks and is getting settled in. Jacob is a really important addition to Second Helpings and will continue to take on more responsibilities.
Finally, many thanks for all your hard work. This is only an amazing charity because of our amazing volunteers.
Best wishes,
Anne
Spotlight on: Jacob McCrone, Operations Manager
We are delighted to have Jacob working with us as our new Operations Manager. We are very proud to have been awarded a grant from the National Lottery, thanks to the efforts of our Treasurer, Pauline, and our previous Team Chair, Audrey. The grant is for five years and will part fund the Operations Manager position.
Having an Operations Manager on board means there will be a dedicated person to ensure that each area runs smoothly. Second Helpings has expanded greatly and having a member of staff working alongside our volunteers will help us to grow and enhance our activities. Part of the role of Operations Manager is to run the teams on a daily basis so please help Jacob to carry out his role effectively by complying with any instructions he may give you.
Jacob says, “Hello everyone. It’s a pleasure to join Second Helpings and meet you all. Some of you will already know that I’m the new Operations Manager. I’m here to oversee the day to day working and ensure we are focused on pushing forward to make Second Helpings better than ever at preventing waste and serving the people of Stamford.”
We trust all of our volunteers will make Jacob welcome and work with him to make SH better than ever.
News
Following a recent visit from Environmental Health, once again we were awarded a 5* rating! Many thanks to Nuala, Roland and the cooks who have kept the place in such fantastic shape.
We have received a £600 Cost of Living Grant from Asda to pay for the items of food that have to be purchased for the café and to pay for the increase in utility bills. Asda are keen to support us in the future and have invited us to attend their next Community Hub event taking place on the 10th October. One of our volunteers, Ben, who is Asda Peterborough’s Community Champion, is coming in next week to take a photo of a giant cheque handover for Asda's social media.
Thanks to some recent funds given to us by SKDC, we are in the process of buying a new community fridge which will be in place soon.
Thank you to all the volunteers who attended the Safeguarding Training on the 1st Oct 2023 and those who have previously completed this. There are certain roles within SH where it is mandatory for volunteers to have been trained, however we very much encourage all our volunteers to undertake the training. The next session will be publicised in due course.
We have been featured in Stamford Pride with a fantastic photo and interview.
