8 month Update & NEWS!
Published on August 5, 2021 by Simon Oldham
Hi all Members!
Firstly hope you are all well and staying safe! At the Food Club we've continued with safety procedures in review with our volunteers and members. This includes continuation of wearing of masks inside, temperature check and hand gel on entry. We will continue to review with guidance and ensuring all that attend feel safe.
Finances
From our Open Collective account and through on the door payments we have raised £9,830 with expenses so far being £4,926.14. This does not include outgoing expenses for new quarter for rent/storage and for FareShare costs.
This includes a Community Chest grant from Southampton City Council of £2,478 to cover posters, banners, rent, storage and other bits to help us grow. We have yet to spend due keeping reserves for sustainability, which we are now looking to spend currently this month on banners and flags as this is what grant was received for.
BiTC - On to pastures new
As described above we have keeping our reserves for sustainability. We have had to do this while membership increased and we could run from Food Club (FC) & Solidarity Members alone. Numbers massively increased into March reaching our FC sustainability level, which meant we were able to grow into our Shirley Hub at Stephen's Dance Centre, Oakley Road. However, these numbers soon went much lower into June and we have been unable to keep numbers up at our Board In The City (Bevois) Hub. At BiTC we went from an average of 25 a week to average of 10 currently. We currently pay £304 a month to rent and use storage for our use of BiTC which is now unsustainable with current numbers in the medium to long term.
As the above with regret the Board has had to make the decision to give notice of use of BiTC and find pastures new to enable us to remain sustainable to reach new members. We will continue at BiTC until end of August.
We have identified a new site which we are really excited about at Unity Brewing Co. Tap room, Princes Street, Northam. Jimmy owner of Unity has agreed for us to use the site for free at same time and dates as before as Bevois Hub.
Will send more details soon, so please bear with us while we setup but this enables some great opportunities and partnership going forward.
Shirley continues to grow and pickup new members. Val, the owner of Stephen's Dance Centre has also very kindly let us use the site for free and some use for storage too.
We thank all our partners, especially to Hayley and Team at BiTC for their support & hosting our initial site, their support and advice while we setup was much appreciated.
We would like all members to contact us if with their views, suggestions, support or issues so we can feed into process. SSAG can only exist and continue going forward with you support. This includes objections or amendments put forward by members to help with decision making.
Out and about
With opening up of rules means more events are starting to happen again. SSAG are taking the opportunity by getting our message out, fundraise and signing up new members.
This includes having a stall at TriFest held at Riverside Park, Saturday, August 14, running from 12.30pm – 7pm . Please come along and support the event and say hello!
We also will have a stall at the So'ton Uni Student Union Volunteering & Community Fair, Thursday 7th October, 11-3pm. We also hope to work closer with SUSU to help support students and with food waste going forward.
Any other events or fairs we could attend please let us know or invite us and we'd be happy to attend.
Partners
We would also to massively thanks Stephen's Dance Centre for their very generous use of their space and support.
A massive thanks to Unique Plumbing Supplies for their generous monthly contribution which enables us to get more household goods for the Food Club. They also massively supported the Mutual Aid Group with use of their vans to get food for supplies for the Emergency Food parcels!
Also massive thanks to FareShare, Co-Op Ocean Village, Aldi Bursledon Road, Aldi Brownhill Way and Aldi Eastleigh for their support and donations of food waste and collections.
We also have signed up with SO:Linked and with that their new SO:Lotto, so please visit their site to buy tickets and helps support us ad their great work across Southampton
https://www.solotto.org.uk/support/southampton-social-aid-group? fbclid=IwAR316Ba6qXsxaOKY-knpdnEwBZLF0xXIOaAYaoaL046IgvYgoHQ3GTeQGb4.
AGM
In January we will be running our first full Annual General Meeting. This will include updates, reports and election for the board.
We would also like to hear from the members with suggestions, motions or ways forward.
Further details will be sent nearer the time on dates, times and papers.
Thanks!
Thank you to all our members for your continued support. We ask for you to continue to share and put the word out. If you would like posters or leaflets to put out in your local area (shops, tower blocks, pass to friends & families) please let us know.
We are also looking for more volunteers that can support regularly and reliably weekly; this includes driving, lifting and shifting stock, Food Club Hub support and help keep us growing.
Many thanks to you all, Solidarity.
Simon
Chair of SSAG.
Firstly hope you are all well and staying safe! At the Food Club we've continued with safety procedures in review with our volunteers and members. This includes continuation of wearing of masks inside, temperature check and hand gel on entry. We will continue to review with guidance and ensuring all that attend feel safe.
Finances
From our Open Collective account and through on the door payments we have raised £9,830 with expenses so far being £4,926.14. This does not include outgoing expenses for new quarter for rent/storage and for FareShare costs.
This includes a Community Chest grant from Southampton City Council of £2,478 to cover posters, banners, rent, storage and other bits to help us grow. We have yet to spend due keeping reserves for sustainability, which we are now looking to spend currently this month on banners and flags as this is what grant was received for.
BiTC - On to pastures new
As described above we have keeping our reserves for sustainability. We have had to do this while membership increased and we could run from Food Club (FC) & Solidarity Members alone. Numbers massively increased into March reaching our FC sustainability level, which meant we were able to grow into our Shirley Hub at Stephen's Dance Centre, Oakley Road. However, these numbers soon went much lower into June and we have been unable to keep numbers up at our Board In The City (Bevois) Hub. At BiTC we went from an average of 25 a week to average of 10 currently. We currently pay £304 a month to rent and use storage for our use of BiTC which is now unsustainable with current numbers in the medium to long term.
As the above with regret the Board has had to make the decision to give notice of use of BiTC and find pastures new to enable us to remain sustainable to reach new members. We will continue at BiTC until end of August.
We have identified a new site which we are really excited about at Unity Brewing Co. Tap room, Princes Street, Northam. Jimmy owner of Unity has agreed for us to use the site for free at same time and dates as before as Bevois Hub.
Will send more details soon, so please bear with us while we setup but this enables some great opportunities and partnership going forward.
Shirley continues to grow and pickup new members. Val, the owner of Stephen's Dance Centre has also very kindly let us use the site for free and some use for storage too.
We thank all our partners, especially to Hayley and Team at BiTC for their support & hosting our initial site, their support and advice while we setup was much appreciated.
We would like all members to contact us if with their views, suggestions, support or issues so we can feed into process. SSAG can only exist and continue going forward with you support. This includes objections or amendments put forward by members to help with decision making.
Out and about
With opening up of rules means more events are starting to happen again. SSAG are taking the opportunity by getting our message out, fundraise and signing up new members.
This includes having a stall at TriFest held at Riverside Park, Saturday, August 14, running from 12.30pm – 7pm . Please come along and support the event and say hello!
We also will have a stall at the So'ton Uni Student Union Volunteering & Community Fair, Thursday 7th October, 11-3pm. We also hope to work closer with SUSU to help support students and with food waste going forward.
Any other events or fairs we could attend please let us know or invite us and we'd be happy to attend.
Partners
We would also to massively thanks Stephen's Dance Centre for their very generous use of their space and support.
A massive thanks to Unique Plumbing Supplies for their generous monthly contribution which enables us to get more household goods for the Food Club. They also massively supported the Mutual Aid Group with use of their vans to get food for supplies for the Emergency Food parcels!
Also massive thanks to FareShare, Co-Op Ocean Village, Aldi Bursledon Road, Aldi Brownhill Way and Aldi Eastleigh for their support and donations of food waste and collections.
We also have signed up with SO:Linked and with that their new SO:Lotto, so please visit their site to buy tickets and helps support us ad their great work across Southampton
https://www.solotto.org.uk/support/southampton-social-aid-group? fbclid=IwAR316Ba6qXsxaOKY-knpdnEwBZLF0xXIOaAYaoaL046IgvYgoHQ3GTeQGb4.
AGM
In January we will be running our first full Annual General Meeting. This will include updates, reports and election for the board.
We would also like to hear from the members with suggestions, motions or ways forward.
Further details will be sent nearer the time on dates, times and papers.
Thanks!
Thank you to all our members for your continued support. We ask for you to continue to share and put the word out. If you would like posters or leaflets to put out in your local area (shops, tower blocks, pass to friends & families) please let us know.
We are also looking for more volunteers that can support regularly and reliably weekly; this includes driving, lifting and shifting stock, Food Club Hub support and help keep us growing.
Many thanks to you all, Solidarity.
Simon
Chair of SSAG.