We are truly overjoyed to have won the Crawley Community award for Volunteer Group 2018!
A huge thank you to everyone who voted for us. As we won, it appears that everyone already knows about this great project, so we’d like to dedicate this post to all of the unseen people who make it possible for us to do what we do.
Volunteers
We have an incredible team of volunteers. Some of them are hovering around the poverty line themselves. Some of them work very long hours. All of them have their own challenges of some sort, as do we all. Yet they give up their time, week after week, to help those even less fortunate.
Metro Cars
Zaffer at Metro Cars has supported the project since day 1. Ideas, advice and always there for anything we need. When we were serving from the street, Zaffer provided the water for the urn and allowed us to plug in our extension lead to heat it up. He still allows us to use his cab office as the GBC drop off point for donated goods.
Tesco
Through their FareShare programme, Tesco donates a huge amount of food to us every week. In particular, vast amounts of pastries for us to make up our rough sleeper snack bags. The donations keep growing and we’re now able to distribute a multitude of groceries to people experiencing hard times.
The Circles Network
The Hub on the High Street is part of The Circles Network, a national charity supporting various community based projects. They hire us The Hub on the High Street at a very low rate so that we can serve our guests indoors. Clare at the Hub is incredibly supportive and flexible and is key to the ongoing success of our indoor activity.
Crawley Community & Voluntary Service (CCVS)
CCVS is a constant source of support, information and advice. Karl, in particular, has been an amazing resource, helping us deal with the compliance and admin challenges as we’ve grown and needed to become more professional. Most recently he’s been invaluable in assisting us with our registered charity application.
The Cellar
Suky at The Cellar donates snacks, food and milk to us every week. A small local business giving back to the community.
Chapati Junxion
Every Sunday, Chapati Junxion donates 100 of their tasty samosas to us. Another small local business supporting our cause.
Mazza
Hot food is always our biggest challenge and Mazza have recently started to contribute regularly. Thier legendary Biriyani is a big hit with our guests. Yet another small local business doing their bit.
Cake Box
After a great meal, there’s nothing better than a delicious cake and Cake Box have answered our call. Donating dozens of creamy creations for our guests to enjoy.
Corporate Donors
We’ve had some incredible financial donations and goods or services donations from corporations. Ardingly College gave us a huge donation of catering supplies. Cecil Macdonald donated hundreds of airline meals. Heating Bargains made a financial contribution. Islamic Culture Centre & Mosque made a financial contribution. Schoeller Allibert donated a huge amount of blue storage boxes for our van and garage. Spotted Crawley was the first to come forward and donate something to us for our new auction to raise funds. The Vapour Room made a financial contribution. VendTrade donates vending machine snacks.
Paramedics
Some of our local paramedics give up their own time every week now, to come and do some health checks with our guests. This is invaluable because some guests are isolated from the usual medical services. The paramedics are able to help with minor ailments and identify more serious issues. Their actions have definitely aided the comfort of many and possibly saved lives of a few.
Barbers
Jon from The Barbers at Tilgate Tattoo Studio comes in regularly to give free haircuts to our guests. A fresh haircut can do wonders for improving self-esteem.
Community
Members of the local community have been extremely generous. We’ve received many financial donations from members of the public and whenever we appeal for goods we are inundated with offers. It’s fantastic to see local people stepping up to help those less fortunate.
Crawley Borough Council
The council have engaged with us quickly to find out more about what we do and they are now a great partner.
Crawley Police
We’ve had great support and advice from Crawley Police through Inspector Joanne Webb.
All of the above individuals and organisations make what we do possible. Without their generosity and support, we would be offering a much more basic service to our guests. Giving Back Crawley would like to say a huge thank you to all of you.
