Clubs

Rotherham pulls together to combat growing hunger crisis

A foodbank project manager has praised supermarkets, Rotary Clubs and others for how they have pulled together to combat hunger in the town.  But, warns Stephen Prosser of Rotherham Foodbank, the real crisis is only just beginning.

Since April, first-time users represent over 50% of the clients presenting vouchers for food at Rotherham Foodbank’s Hope Centre on Grove Road.  That, says Steve, should sound a warning about how tough times will get as the post-covid recession bites.

“Had it not been for the generosity of supermarkets like Morrisons and Tesco, and the superb efforts of our local Rotherham Sitwell Rotary Club and Rotary4foodbanks, we would be facing a real dilemma.  Because of their donations of vital supplies our shelves are reasonably stocked to see us through the summer.  But it will be in the autumn, as furloughs end and redundancies kick in, as the homeless are no longer housed in hotels, that the real scale of the hunger issue will hit home.”

During 2012 when the foodbank first opened its doors, it fed just 124 people.  In 2015 the number had increased to 2338.  By 2019 it had more than doubled again to 4869 with over 42 tonnes of food distributed to support some of the most vulnerable in the Rotherham community.

Since April this year, when Rotherham Sitwell Rotary stepped in to help, the club has provided over five tonnes of the 19 tonnes of food in stock or distributed by the foodbank.  Club members are donating between £500 and £1000 every week to buy supplies, and supermarket giant Morrisons is more than matching that contribution.

To help meet the growing demand the South Yorkshire and East Midlands Rotary Clubs have added a new tier of support – Rotary4foodbanks.  Pooling resources, Rotary4foodbanks bulk buys staple food supplies – tea, coffee, tinned fruit, cereals – at wholesale prices which it distributes by the pallet-load to around 50 foodbanks across the region.  By the end of August it will have distributed food with a wholesale value of around £100,000 and has plans to extend the scheme as demands on foodbanks continue to rise.

“For us it is the perfect combination,” says Steve.  “While Rotary4foodbanks supplies good shelf-life stocks of those in-demand items, we can write a shopping list of our specific needs to the local Rotary Club and, working with Morrisons, we know they will provide it.

“It is heart-warming to see local charities like Rotary, together with businesses and individuals, pull together to support those who might otherwise fall through the net. It says so much about the true spirit of Rotherham in times of crisis.”

That spirit stretches even further, explains Rotherham Sitwell Rotary’s Roger Green:

“Club members have been fantastically generous. But to transport the stocks, we needed a vehicle big enough to do it.  Rotherham business Universal Vehicle Suppliers stepped in straight away.  They have lent us a 17-seater minibus for as long as we need it.  Now we can both transport goods and socially distance the team travelling to load and unload at each end!”

Local MP Sarah Champion has praised the work of Rotary4foodbanks.  She says:

“I am aware of the R4FB scheme and am really impressed by the speed at which this was put together and the generosity of not only Rotary Club members but retailers and distributors. The scale that R4FB has been able to reach is quite incredible. Behind each of those parcels was a family or individual who, without their help may have gone hungry. 

“The generous spirit of Rotherham people has really come to the fore in the last few months, with people pulling together to help friends, family and strangers. It is one of the reasons that I am so proud to represent Rotherham in Parliament.”

Steve Prosser and his team of up to 12 volunteers are always looking for cash and food donations to support their work in the town. 

Rotary4foodbanks is planning to double its work in the next three months and has set up a just giving page for those wanting to donate.

You can support Rotary4Foodbanks through our JustGiving page

Posted in: Rotary4Foodbanks, Rotherham Sitwell

Leave a Comment (0) →

Dronfield food charity gets Rotary lifeline as demand for services doubles

A Dronfield food charity has seen demand for its services double since the start of the Covid crisis.  With the help of the local supermarkets and a vital supply lifeline from Rotary4foodbanks they are now providing food parcels to over 100 local families in need every week.

“Before March we had 100 individuals on our books and in need of support. Now that has risen to 250, including families where children would otherwise go hungry without our support,” says Janet Morton who manages the Re:Store Community Food service on behalf of Oaks Community Church.

Originally set up to reduce food waste, Re:Store has increasingly become a lifeline for vulnerable families in and around Dronfield.  “We work with supermarkets to ensure that ‘near-its-sell-by-date’ food doesn’t get wasted.  But with the increase in demand, there have been days when we had nothing on the shelves and have had to turn people away.  Our link with Dronfield Rotary Club and Rotary4foodbanks has been a real boost, ensuring that we always have something to include in the food parcels.”

The Rotary4Foodbanks scheme, run entirely by volunteers, is an East Midlands and South Yorkshire initiative which pools funds and bulk buys staple food supplies at wholesale prices which it distributes to foodbanks across the region.  By the end of August it will have distributed food with a wholesale value of around £100,000 and has plans to extend the scheme as demands on foodbanks continue to rise.

Janet picks up Rotary4foodbank stocks – coffee, tea, tinned fruit and cereals – by the pallet-load from a Sheffield warehouse.  Her team of volunteers split it into individual parcels.  “Previously people have come into our community food service, based at Lea Rd in Dronfield and picked up what they need.  Now, as part of social distancing and to safeguard our own team, they wait at the door while we pack parcels for them.”

Janet normally counts on 20 volunteers but with many of them elderly and shielding, the team is under more pressure than ever.  She expects that as the furlough system ends and redundancies increase, the demand for Re:Store’s service will increase still further.  “We are committed to meeting the need, come what may, and are grateful to initiatives like Rotary4foodbanks, for the vital support they provide.”

You can support Rotary4Foodbanks through our JustGiving page

Posted in: Dronfield, Rotary4Foodbanks

Leave a Comment (0) →

1220 Challenge – fundraising for Prostate Cancer UK

Logo for the 1220 Challenge

Throughout the years members of the Rotary Club of Sherwood Forest have raised thousands of pounds for local and International charities by holding a variety of fund raising efforts.  Three years ago the club arranged a sponsored bike ride that raised 4,000 for Cancer UK. 

For our new fundraising challenge for this Rotary year we have chosen to raise money ‘Prostate Cancer UK’.  The challenge will run from the 8th July 2020 to 8th July 2021.

Due to the current pandemic we have had to be creative and create a challenge that is open to every one of all ages but offers the safest possible way for people to take part, even if social distancing is reintroduced in the coming months.

So what is the 1220 Challenge? 

The aim of this challenge is for people of all ages to cycle a specific distance which relates to our Rotary Clubs district, 1220.  The challenge will be spread over a whole year and the riders can either complete the whole ride outside or from the safety of their own homes on an exercise bikes.

There are a number of distances to choose from, which are based on starting at the Major Oak in Sherwood Forest

  1. Sherwood Forest to Oxford (122 miles)
  2. Sherwood Forest to Dover Castle (220 miles)
  3. Sherwood Forest to Dijon (600 miles)
  4. Sherwood Forest to Rome (1220 miles)

And for the really hard core cyclist

  • Sherwood Forest to Istanbul (2021 miles)

We have tried to select distances that will appeal to riders or all ages and abilities.

If you initially chose to do a short distance but want to go further feel free to do so.

How will we record your progress?

Everyone that wants to take part in this event will be asked to join the cycling App STRAVA.  You can do this on your mobile phone, tablets and laptop computers.  We will provide you with full details of how to join STRAVA and how to record your rides after you commit to the challenge (there is a capacity to enter rides on done on an exercise bike which is why we chose this application). 

You will then be invited to join the ‘SHERWOOD FOREST ROTARY CYCLING CLUB’ 

This will mean all your rides will be automatically recorded to our page so everyone doing the challenge will be able to see how the other riders are progressing.

We will also be posting regular update on our clubs Facebook; Instagram and Twitter pages so if you want to take photographs of you riding then please do and forward them onto us at our email address.

Fundraising.

Due to COVID19 we have decided that the safest way to raise the money is through direct donations to our ‘Just Giving’ page as this will mean money doesn’t have to he handled.  There is the option of having a sponsorship form which can be downloaded from the Prostate Cancer UK website.

We have a just giving page for this challenge

If people want to make a donation then they can also leave a message relating to the person who they are supporting so each rider can see what they have raised.

All the money raised through this challenge will go to Prostate Cancer UK.  All we ask is that each rider makes a voluntary contribution of #10 through the just giving page in order to take part.

How do I join the challenge?

If want to take part or would like further details please contact Dave or Laura Dennis at the following e-mail address and we will contact you back as soon as we can.

Contact details   sherwoodforestrotary@yahoo.com

Posted in: Fundraising, Sherwood Forest

Leave a Comment (0) →

Wortley Rotarian Co-ordinates Delivery of PPE

DURING the present Covid 19 pandemic, Wortley Rotary Club are doing whatever they can to help people and organisations who need assistance. They have joined forces with Seth Lilleker, who contacted the club saying he was currently furloughed and making face shields using 3D printers in his front room to be provided free of charge to NHS personnel, emergency services and care home staff.

The club made donations to Seth through his GoFundMe page and some members made personal donations. The club saw local care homes as the priority and club member, Rev Canon Lewis Atkinson, volunteered to be the liaison officer.

Lewis was also made aware that a ladies sewing group in Dronfield were making cloth face shields for distribution free of charge to care homes so he also took this on board and as of today he has arranged for the delivery of 5205 masks to the same care homes.

Canon Lewis

The staff at the homes are most grateful. Rotary club member John Evans told Look Local: “Our most senior Rotarian, namely the Rev Canon Lewis Atkinson, at 86 years young has since the start of Covid 19 co-ordinated delivery, all free of charge, of over 2935 face shields and 5205 cloth face masks all made by local volunteers to over 200 outlets, including care homes, doctor’s surgeries, chemists and other establishments in our local area, reaching out as far as Huddersfield, Wakefield, Barnsley, Rotherham, Sheffield and Doncaster. This number is rising daily.

Lewis is a lovely man who lives in Chapeltown and is working tirelessly to make sure care homes have the PPE which we are able to help source..

As seen in Look Local newspaper

Posted in: Wortley

Leave a Comment (0) →

Rotary teams up with local foodbanks to fight hunger

A NEW initiative by Rotary is helping to support Sheffield foodbanks as they face unprecedented demand for their services.

Sheffield foodbanks, in common with those accross the country, are facing a massive increase in demand as a result of the Covid19 crisis. More and mode families are facing increasing hardship and are turning to foodbanks as a vital means of support.

But a new initiative by Rotary is helping to ensure that the limited funds of many of the region’s foodbanks go further still.

Local club Wortley Rotary is part of the region-wide project, Rotary4foodbanks, launched last month across the East Midlands and South Yorkshire.

President of the Wortley Rotary Club, Philip Sherriff, told Look Local: “Its a real team effort.”

“Foodbanks can be nominated by Rotary clubs for direct support and other foodbanks can order supplies through Rotary4foodbanks and see their limited funds work harder. Wortley club has donated funds and nominated the foodbank at St Saviours, High Green and last week they received their first bulk delivery from the project.”

Volunteers at St Saviours

While the Rotary4foodbanks scheme is currently operating only in the East Midlands and South Yorkshire the plan is to roll it out more broadly.

“Our members tell us there is a crying need for a similar service to support food banks elsewhere in the country” says the scheme’s coordinator John Cavey.

You can support Rotary4Foodbanks through our JustGiving page

As seen in Local Look newspaper

Posted in: Rotary4Foodbanks, Wortley

Leave a Comment (0) →

Saying Thank You to our local shops

Wirksworth Rotary Club has recognised more than 25 local shops, which remained open throughout the COVID-19 lockdown period to keep supporting our community, with a special Thank You certificate on behalf of our Club and the Rotary organisation.

Many of these shops are quite small, which means the staff have been putting themselves at risk to keep serving the community. In fact a number of them have actually increased the level of service they provided, by making more deliveries to the homes of people having to self-isolate or shield. 

We know that the staff in these shops have been very appreciative of this gesture and in many cases have pinned up our certificate in their shop windows for all to see.

In some of the outlying villages, where the local village shop has long since closed down, volunteers stepped in to help with shopping and delivery of essential food and medicine supplies and we have been pleased to acknowledge all their support too.

Posted in: Wirksworth

Leave a Comment (0) →

Charities Benefit from £4000 share-out

Four local charities have benefited from a £4,000 share-out, the proceeds of the recent Eckington VIRTUAL Classic Car & Bike Show 2020 organised by the Rotary Club of Chesterfield.

The money raised by kind sponsors, generous donors, along with a top up by Chesterfield Rotary Club, means each charity has received £1,000 each. The four charities are:- Ashgate Hospicecare, Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice, The Elm Foundation (supporting domestic abuse victims), and Weston Park Cancer Charity.

This innovative online event was organised by the Satellite Group of younger members of the Rotary Club of Chesterfield to replace the usual annual event, which takes place each June at Renishaw Hall, but had to be cancelled this year due to COVID-19.

Chairman of the organising committee, Andrew Thompson, said, ‘We switched to an online event so we could at least raise something this year for our nominated charities as they have been so severely restricted in fund-raising due to the coronavirus pandemic.’

He added: ‘The date has already been fixed for next year’s charity fund-raising live event when the 2021 Eckington Classic Car & Bike Show will be held at Renishaw Hall on Wednesday 9 June 2021, and we are also delighted to announce that there will also be the exciting addition of the virtual online show running parallel to the main event – basically the best of both worlds.’

Posted in: Cars, Chesterfield

Leave a Comment (0) →

Plant Sale with a difference raises over £2,900 for Jigsaw Foodbank

For many years the Wirksworth Rotary Club has run a plant sale in May to raise money for local good causes. A few years ago we teamed up with the Transition Wirksworth Community Growers in order to expand our offering to include vegetables and herbs as well as traditional bedding plants and perennials.

This collaboration has proved to be a great success and we were looking forward to holding this year’s plant sale, when we were to be also to be joined by the Wirksworth U3A Gardening Group. Everything changed of course as the Covid-19 virus started to spread across the world and the country went into lockdown.

As seasoned plants people, we had all our seeds and seedlings overwintering in greenhouses and on windowsills and the idea of throwing all these young plants onto the compost heap was unthinkable.  We all agreed that the sale MUST GO ON – the big question was how to make it happen without breaching lockdown and social distancing guidelines.

Out of this the ‘virtual’ plant sale was born. Lists and the descriptions of all the plants for sale were collected from our wonderful team of growers and using social media platforms and public noticeboards we started to spread the word. Timed collections of orders were scheduled at a number of locations and for customers in self-isolation we arranged personal deliveries.

In view of these unprecedented times and the difficulties which so many people in our community are facing as a result of the shutdown of many businesses, it was agreed that all the money from the proceeds of the Plant Sale would be donated to the Jigsaw Foodbank in Matlock.

As a result of the fantastic support of so many people over £2,900 was raised. Out of this total, £750 has already been paid into the Rotary4Foodbanks fund. The Jigsaw Foodbank, nominated by the Bakewell, Matlock and Wirksworth Rotary Clubs in Rotary4Foodbanks, has already received several consignments of extremely valuable staple items for their food bags through this scheme.

Ruth Longfellow from the Jigsaw Foodbank commented, “This is such a generous donation and very much appreciated! It will help us to keep supporting the vulnerable in our community for some time to come.” “We are very grateful for all the generous donations of tinned and packet food we receive from individuals and organisations in the local community, as well as financial donations which enable us to purchase any items we are short of and also the ability to provide fresh fruit and vegetables for our clients. The donations we receive enable us to continue to support these vulnerable, needy families who find themselves in the most desperate of circumstances.”

Posted in: Rotary4Foodbanks, Wirksworth

Leave a Comment (0) →

Top Award for Local Community Activists

Two local Rotarians have been recognised for their vital role in successfully setting up a new vibrant group for busy younger professionals interested in supporting the local community with charitable events, projects, and fun social activities.

The new, Chesterfield Rotary Satellite Group, is part of the well-established Rotary Club of Chesterfield, and now has twenty-two members, both male and female.  The group (normally) meets monthly at Chesterfield Panthers Rugby Club. It most recently raised £4,000 for four key local charities with a virtual online classic car & bike show and has made donations to the local food banks.

Financial planner Peter Blant, the founding chairman of the satellite group, and business adviser Paul Davies, the satellite group secretary, have both been awarded Rotary International’s highest honour, a Paul Harris Fellowship for providing this exciting new approach to Rotary in the town. 

The award was presented by Chesterfield Rotary president Nigel Metham at a special socially distanced ceremony (viewed online by members) on Friday 3 July 2020.

Interested in joining the new group? Contact Satellite group secretary Paul Davies 07753 605 272 or check out social media.

Posted in: Chesterfield

Leave a Comment (0) →

Rotary Amber Valley Plan to Support Communities

During an online ceremony, the 2020-21 joint leadership team of Chris Riggott and Peter Arnott were welcomed and received their chains of office from outgoing leaders Howard Doran and Glyn Allsop. Local man David Hickton also received recognition for many years of community service.

Chris, who was in the animal health industry as a business manager, lives at Tansley whilst Peter lives at Kilburn after many years as a manager in the automotive supply chain. They have as their theme for the year, ‘ Fun, Fellowship and Future Planning to Support Communities.’ Two charities will receive particular support: ‘Kids Out’ which provides disadvantaged children with exciting memories to cherish and ‘End Polio Now’ Rotary International’s campaign to eradicate polio worldwide by helping to provide vaccines.

Chris said, “We know we are in difficult times and must implement some changes to enable Rotary to continue to support communities. However, we are currently supporting local food banks and planning to hold our Charity Horse Ride in October and Rotary Santa and his sleigh will be around the borough at Christmas, albeit safely. Please continue to support Rotary to help others.”

To emphasise safety and future planning, Chris & Peter had pre-event ‘social distancing’ badge handover including with Marie Adams of Ripley who will take over in 2021-22.

During the online event Presidents Peter and Chris presented a ‘Paul Harris Fellow’ award to Rotarian David Hickton of Ripley. The international Rotary award recognises the substantial contribution made by Alan particularly in terms of his work with young people. President Peter said, “Chris and I pay tribute to David for his work over many years encouraging young people in the borough both in schools, sports and personal achievements. It is a great pleasure to make the award.”

Rotary Amber Valley meets each week, currently by video conference. If you wish to join us please contact secretary Paul on 07778 048648 to discuss and receive an electronic invite.

Posted in: Amber Valley

Leave a Comment (0) →
Page 3 of 18 12345...»