JD Wetherspoon reaches £23mn raised for Young Lives vs Cancer, & more partnership news
Melanie May | 9 April 2024 | News
A round up of recent corporate partnership and fundraising news, including JD Wetherspoon’s total to date for Young Lives vs Cancer, wagamama’s partnership with Shout, and KFC’s work with FareShare to drive up volunteer recruitment.
Hospice chosen as High Sheriff’s charity of the year
The High Sheriff of South Glamorgan, Janey Howell, has chosen City Hospice as her charity of the year. Howell, who is originally from Antigua, is the High Sheriff of South Glamorgan for 2024 to 2025. The High Sheriff is the monarch’s judicial representative in the county and is the oldest secular Office in the United Kingdom after the Crown.
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In addition to responsibilities such as attending royal visits, ensuring the wellbeing and protection of high court judges and acting as the returning officer for parliamentary elections in the county, High Sheriffs are encouraged to use their year in office to make a difference and raise the profile of local charities and community foundations. Outside of the Office of High Sheriff, Howell is the Joint Managing Director of BCB International. The Cardiff-based business is taking part in City Hospice’s 40 Charity Challenge to turn £40 into a minimum of £1600 for the charity through creative and innovative fundraising.
wagamama partners with Shout to support mental health mission across the UK
wagamama has announced its new partnership with Shout, the free 24/7 text messaging support service for anyone experiencing mental health struggles. wagamama has made an initial donation of £40,000, which is equivalent to 4,000 text conversations facilitated by Shout volunteers. As well as this, wagamama is making an internal pledge to contribute 50,000 hours of volunteering to support Shout’s work, encouraging participation from across the business.
wagamama is also committing to support Shout in their goal to recruit and train 1,000 volunteers in 2024. In addition, wagamama will be guiding their guests though key life transitions by hosting events across the country to provide support and a safe space on their benches. With expert advice alongside their menu, the events will surround significant changes such as becoming a parent, coming out, beginning life at university, and loneliness.
Restaurant and hospitality sector unite to raise £370k to fight hunger
Last year the hospitality industry raised £373,671 for Action Against Hunger through the Love Food Give Campaign. In 2023, the biggest fundraising restaurant was Manteca in Soho, which raised £7,800, while the largest group fundraiser was Hawksmoor with £135,000.
Every year as part of the Love Food Give Campaign, hundreds of participating restaurants ask diners to turn their love for food into a charitable donation by adding an optional £1 to the bill. Since the campaign’s inception 12 years ago, the hospitality sector has fundraised £4.1 million in total for Action Against Hunger, which is enough to treat more than 73,000 children suffering from life-threatening hunger. Action Against Hunger UK is now recruiting new restaurants to take part in the campaign next year. Restaurants interested in taking part can register their interest by contacting lo**************@ac*****************.uk.
MetLife donates £72k to Winston’s Wish
MetLife UK has made a £72,000 donation to nationwide childhood bereavement charity, Winston’s Wish. Over the last 12 months employees at MetLife UK have been raising funds through sponsored activities including the South Coast 25K run, the Three Peaks Challenge, Marathons, a 7-person team sky dive over Kent, bike rides, as well as in-office team events such as bingo and charity bake off sales, raising £16,000. The funds raised were further supported by MetLife Foundation, which made a £56,000 donation, bringing the total to £72,000.
The funding will support Winston’s Wish to reach more grieving children and young people through the charity’s ‘help our helpline project’ and to improve the on-demand services offered, such as the Freephone National Helpline, email and live chat services, and associated volunteer programme.
KFC partners with FareShare to drive community kitchens volunteer recruitment
With 11 million people in the UK currently facing food insecurity, FareShare has teamed up with KFC to drive volunteer recruitment to local community kitchens through a KFC branded bike – the Bucket Bike.
Currently, volunteers transport surplus chicken from KFC restaurants to almost 1,000 charities and community groups across the UK. The joint campaign to big up the Bucket Bike is designed to raise awareness of these local charities and community kitchens and comes as KFC hits the milestone of 1 million meals redistributed via FareShare. The bike is being trialled on the streets of Brighton with volunteer riders who transport food from KFC to FareShare depots.
Eurocell to donate £50 to Maggie’s for every team member turning 50 this year
Home improvement specialist Eurocell has launched a year of celebrations for its 50th anniversary with a special initiative to donate £50 for every team member that turns 50 to its charity partner Maggie’s. With 52 people from across the business celebrating their 50th, it means £2,600 will be donated from this alone, with proceeds being handed over at one of Maggie’s bases in Wirral.
Eurocell is a nationwide network of more than 200 branches and employs more than 2,000 people, with its HQ in Alfreton, Derbyshire. In 2024, each team will be challenged to raise at least £50 for charity, meaning more than £10,500 will be raised for Maggie’s. There will even be a Eurocell 5-a-side Football Tournament in June, with 11 teams competing with a minimum target of £500 each.
dentsu helps FareShare redistribute over 1 million meals
In two years, dentsu has supported FareShare to redistribute the equivalent of 1,156,415 meals to communities across the UK, after raising £259,097.98 for the charity.
Using these funds, FareShare has reduced emissions and water usage associated with producing, storing, and transporting surplus food by distributing it to frontline charities and community groups. The partnership has saved a 504 tonnes of embedded C02e from going to waste. A further 670 million litres of water has also been saved. Dentsu’s partnership with FareShare is part of its broader mission to embed sustainable consumption into its own business and the work it does with its clients, with the aim of enabling 1 billion people to make better and more sustainable choices by 2030.
BIMS announces partnership with charity, Spread a Smile, in celebration of Ramadan
Burger brand BIMS has partnered with Spread a Smile, and this Ramadan season, has pledged to donate 30% of profits from every Ramadan Feast sold, to support the charity’s work.
The Ramadan Feast is made up of variety of dishes including a selection of BIMS’s best-selling burgers, fries, drinks and desserts including dates and walnut baklava.
blue self storage raises £20,000 for Prostate Cancer UK
Container storage provider blue self storage has raised £20,000 for Prostate Cancer UK. The landmark has been reached as the firm celebrates the recent opening of its Bridgend operation, and is finalising plans to open a facility at Gloucester.
The figure was reached through monthly donations of £150 from blue self storage. The monthly donations will continue for the foreseeable future to increase the total amount donated.
JD Wetherspoon reaches £23mn raised for Young Lives vs Cancer
JD Wetherspoon has reached the fundraising milestone of £23 million for official charity partner Young Lives vs Cancer. Since the partnership began in 2002, JD Wetherspoon has hosted various events and organised an array of fundraising challenges. The pub chain hosts several annual events such as hiking challenges, dart tournaments and the UK-wide football tournament KICK, which brings staff from pubs across the nation together to play football and fundraise as teams.
Many staff members have also taken on personal challenges to add to the company’s fundraising totals such as taking part in the London to Paris cycle and mountain hiking challenges. The ever-growing fundraising total has also been supported by JD Wetherspoon staff and customers alike getting involved in events like bake sales, raffles and quizzes in their local pubs.
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.