ALDI CANNOCK ORBITAL

Burntwood Be A Friend (BBAF) was born from crisis, founded during the Covid-19 pandemic with a singular aim: to ensure no one in our community felt forgotten. What began as a team of volunteers delivering essentials has since evolved into a dynamic, multi-faceted charity supporting over 850 households in Burntwood and its surrounding areas. From our Community Store and wellbeing walks to free cooking classes and counselling, BBAF listens to needs and responds with action.

Upper Moreton Rural Activities CIC provides a range of rural based courses and activities to promote learning and wellbeing. We support vulnerable adults recovering from mental ill health, young people and children with learning difficulties and disabilities, schools, colleges and community groups. Our rural day opportunities offer a wide range of activities, from working with farm animals and pets, gardening, handicrafts, woodwork and importantly individual health and wellbeing with healthy eating and cooking. Participants come from a wide range of circumstances, including individuals who have poor mental health, low self-esteem, individuals who have learning disabilities and/or learning difficulties. We provide support for individuals by introducing new skills, and experiences, promoting self-confidence and personal development. Courses and activities consist of many meaningful activities on the farm, with some being part of the normal ‘working’ routine and where possible we offer volunteering placements and work experience and advice with next steps. We strongly believe that good health comes from good nutrition therefore as part of a healthy lifestyle we encourage healthy eating and cooking / baking - inspiring all individuals to eat a wholesome meal – teaching all about good nutrition and how to cook on a minimum budget especially with the food crisis. Supporting individuals with all aspects of food preparation food safety, food hygiene and how to avoid food waste is most important, as many individuals have little knowledge in these subject areas. Upper Moreton’s staff are all fully trained in food safety, food preparation and all hold level II certificates in food safety in the workplace. One member of staff is a health professional who has specialist knowledge and experience in promoting health eating and healthy lifestyles. We teach individuals about food storage and what is meant by best before and sell by dates. We cook on a regular basis two / three days per week - because most of our people do not always have access to a regular healthy diet and must make economic choices between the types of food they eat and bills they need to pay. Most people do not know what a hot meal is or know how to cook one. Some lack motivation because especially if they live on their own - we therefore ensure that individuals do not go hungry and have provided some with food to take home. With the neighbourly food collection surplus we aim to use utilise all surplus food by incorporating these into our weekly cooking sessions and to give individuals who do not have enough to eat, regular intakes of food which will help to prevent lack of energy and poor nutrition associated conditions. We aim to give people food handouts if in need to take home. Some cooking activities will involve how to do batch cooking so no food is wasted and to be teach individuals to be more energy efficient.

We are a Community cafe that support our community with food support. We signpost to local services where and when necessary. We have a Community Table in Hednesford three days a week which successfully support up to 60-100 people each week with the support of Neighbourly and other local supermarkets. We also have a Community Food pantry system in place that has ambient foods that service users can also access. We also run food hampers every Christmas Eve from the generous donations from Neighbourly. This year we will not only supply hampers to those who cannot get out but will also offer a Community Table to share the surplus with the local community. We are grateful and forever humble for the support we receive enabling us to support the local homeless and vulnerable families in our community. The members on our Facebook page also support us with our endeavours and are so very generous with donations. We post daily with updates as to where the donations are passed onto keeping us open and accountable for all that we do as a team.