Hospitality staff at Forth Valley College have already given a flavour of how employees are working to give something back to their local communities.
The FVC workforce have been given the opportunity to enhance their professional skills as well through the ‘Giving Back’ initiative, by giving up at least a day of their time to help a local charity of their choice. Many individuals and teams of staff have already identified the sector or organisation they wish to support and Hospitality have shown just what they have on their menu of good deeds.
In the run up to Christmas the Hospitality staff at the college with the help of several willing students, have helped to produce more than 1000 ‘frozen’ three course meals including: soup, turkey trimmings and cheesecake, to the following charities:
- Start-up Stirling
- Addictions Support & Counselling (ASC) - Forth Valley
- KLSB Community Pantry & Stenhousemuir Football Club Warriors
- FVC time4me students
With large gatherings impossible due to the pandemic restrictions, FVC’s annual All Staff Development Day – which took place on Friday 20 November – had to be cancelled. However, charitable ideas such as this generous offer from Hospitality were developed across the college and more teams of staff from across FVC will be doing the same, from now until spring.
Craig Anderson, FVC’s Hospitality Business Development Manager, said: “Whilst this does not lift individuals out of food poverty, it will at least ensure that those receiving the meals have a good quality nutritional meal to celebrate Christmas. We have been producing these meals and freezing them and then distributing to the charities above in the first week of December. These meals will then be distributed from Monday 14 December to those in need.
"When reaching out to the charities and having a discussion at local authority level, the need is staggering and if we had more time, funding and resource we could easily have quadrupled the production. Unfortunately we had to cap our support for now due to timescales and available resources. I have also had informal conversations on this project with both our Principal and Chair of the Forth Valley Board of Management and we have their full backing. I would also like to personally thank all of our chefs, staff and students, helping pull this together.
“In addition I am working with our management team and Pauline Barnaby – FVC’s Development and Fundraising Manager - to explore grant funding routes that may assist us embedding a similar offer of frozen meals throughout 2021. I have had a commitment from Start-up Stirling that they would be looking for 100 meals approximately every two weeks next year. If we apply for grants and receive the funding we hope to be able to increase this offer of support.”
Andy Ireland Foodbank and Client Services Manager, from Start-Up Stirling, said: “Working in partnership with FVC allows us to give our clients an enormous boost at this difficult time."
Sheona McMorran, KLSB Community Pantry, said: “We are delighted to be partnering with Forth Valley College Hospitality department this year for our Christmas provision. The supply of frozen Christmas meals from Forth Valley College will complement our food packs and have real impact to those that receive them. Over the last 6 months we have been working closely with Iain Calder and Carolyn Taylor at FVC to explore how we can support each other though the challenges that COVID 19 has presented. We hope to continue working with Forth Valley College into 2021 and beyond.”
Steve Leslie, Managing Director at Williams Refrigeration Scotland, said: “When we were approached to offer support to charities like Start-up Stirling, who distribute food to people in need, we acted quickly to arrange a blast freezer to help with their festive project.
“Our WBCF30 blast freezer plays a crucial role in the process, allowing quality cooked Christmas meals to be frozen and distributed accordingly, keeping the meals fresh and nutritious.
“At a time where there is much uncertainty, tackling food poverty remains a constant issue. We’re pleased to be able to help such a worthy cause and wish the charities involved luck moving forward as they continue to support families in need.”
Ralph Burns, FVC’s Head of Human Resources, said: “The premise of this idea is to provide the community with the charitable donation of an important resource, the skills and time of our staff. Staff are being given the opportunity to provide a day of their time to support a charity of their choice. If successful we hope to continue in future years.
“The day is not about raising money it is about giving time back. This is an opportunity to be creative, active, supportive, to feel good and to make others feel good. At a time when many are isolated, this is a great opportunity to start something special.”
Dr Ken Thomson, Principal of Forth Valley College, said: “Yet again I find myself feeling pride in the actions of our college staff. Not content with going above and beyond throughout the pandemic lockdown, to make sure the college provided students with a high standard of remote learning to enable them to complete their courses, they are now volunteering to put something back into their local communities. Local charities are certainly going to benefit from the skills and experience of the college team, if they register for this initiative.”
Any registered charity who feels they could benefit from the support of a Forth Valley College staff member or group of staff, should e-mail givingback@forthvalley.ac.uk and register their interest by leaving their contact details and a brief description of what they would want them to be involved in.
