Great Big Cheers To All Our Volunteers!

It’s Volunteers’ week June 2nd – 8th June so it’s the perfect time to say a massive thank you to all our volunteers, whose support this year has been greater than ever. Our volunteers are made up of members, friends, and like-minded folk of all ages with one thing in common – their belief in the value of Village Greens in Prestwich. Many work full-time, giving their valuable downtime to Village Greens, or juggle family and friends to find time to help us. The most valuable thing you have to give in life is your time, and we wanted to celebrate that this week in amongst all the noise of our fundraising.

We’ve put together 5 things we want you to know about our Village Greens Volunteer army!

1.        Shop prepping and shop running

Since we got the keys to our new unit, more than 15 volunteers have shown up to help us with all manner of grafting tasks to prepare our new unit. From scrubbing kitchens, to pulling out the floor, their help has saved us £ for sure, but has also been a huge moral support for the team in this big task.

We also have a huge thank you for our longest standing team volunteers who travel to Ashton to pick up the hugely popular Lily's Indian food for our deli.

2.        Fridge filling 

A committed team of our volunteers helps us run the Community Fridge in Prestwich Village - waste food is collected and shared with the Prestwich community to help people feed themselves and their families, whilst also reducing food waste. All the food is free and is open to the public five days a week. The Fridge team collect and delivers products 5 days a week, as well as cleaning and monitoring the fridge. So far, with the help of these volunteers, we have:

·      Saved over 20 tonnes of food from waste and redistributed it to people in need

·      Redistributed 23.579 tonnes of food

·      Supported 400 people weekly

·      Provided the equivalent of 54,938 meals   

3. Storytelling, Fundraising and Organising

Raising funds for our big move and keeping everyone informed of what we are doing is a huge focus this year, and we simply couldn’t do it without the fabulous Becca and Karen volunteering their time to support. Becca has volunteered for many years, including a long stint on the Board, and continues to give her time to help with all things comms from emails to website to planning – and is always to be seen on our stall at Clough Day. Karen was previously a key member of the shop team, and when she moved on to a new role, has continued as a volunteer, most recently masterminding our crowdfunding campaign.

When it comes to helping organise our volunteers, our champ is Barry, who has herded everyone to great effect and is always going the extra mile to bring it all together.

Also, a shout out to Jack’s mum, and VG member Mandy, who is always on hand to help on a stall at Clough Day, to research price comparisons and look into new products.

4.    Our voluntary Board

Village Greens is overseen by the voluntary Board. This usually consists of up to 8 members who have put themselves forward to be elected to the Board.

It’s a voluntary role, with responsibility for the running of the co-operative on behalf of its members. The Board meets monthly, and has several subgroups such as HR, Marketing and Fundraising, and Finance, to which Board members are allocated based on their skill set. The Board also includes representation from the shop team.

Board members have training about the role and responsibilities, and about how co-operatives work. The ideal term for a Board member is 3 years, so we want to shout all to all those currently serving on the board alongside all those that have previously done so during our first 10 years!

5.    We want to develop our volunteer army further as we move into our new home

Volunteering is a commitment, at the same time as being something that should bring you joy!

Our ambition is to grow our volunteer army so we can:

-       Increase our outreach in the community

-       Widen the skillset of our Board

-       Engage our members more in their co-operative by getting involved as a volunteer in an area that interests them

• Would you like to join our Village Greens Volunteer army?

• Perhaps find out more about becoming a Board member?

• Could spare some time to help fill our community fridge?

• Fancy sharing your skill or talent to help us with our plans?

  
  

Pop in and have a chat, find out more,  or email emma@village-greens-coop.co.uk and get involved as a volunteer this year!