Member Article

Partnership results in thousands of donations for families

A campaign ran by social enterprise Gentoo Group has resulted in thousands of donations to help families in need.

Gentoo staff, along with partners Barclays, Berghaus and Northern Gas Networks have donated more than 2400 items of food and school uniforms as part of Gentoo’s Art of Giving campaign.

The quarterly campaign encourages staff and partner volunteers to donate what they can to help deserving projects across Sunderland.

Throughout July, donators gave food items for Sunderland food banks and unwanted school uniform items for the St Cuthbert’s Care 5p Bus initiative.

Over 1800 items of food were donated and distributed to three food banks across the city including Elim Church, Hetton New Dawn and Washington Community Food Project.

Andrew Hoseason, Washington Community Food Project said: “The food bank was running out of stock despite generosity of donations and was going to have to half the content of the food parcels. However thanks to Gentoo’s donations we have doubled our stock, meaning customers will now get a full food parcel.”

Almost 280kgs of donated food was gifted to each food bank enabling the three charities to help hundreds of families across Sunderland.

The food banks provide a minimum of three days emergency food and support to people when they need it most. With help from the Gentoo STEPs (Supporting Tenants and Empowering People) team, Gentoo staff were also able to donate personalised hampers to a number of less fortunate families.

Gentoo also teamed up with St Cuthbert’s Care 5p Bus initiative to collect unwanted uniforms. The appeal saw more than 600 uniforms donated to benefit children across the city.

Set up in 2008, the 5p Bus is a mobile clothes distribution service which travels around the North East to deliver quality clothing to those who need it most.

Iris Boyd from St Cuthbert’s Care said: “The 5p bus runs entirely on charitable donations, so any contributions are appreciated. I would just like to say a massive thank you to all Gentoo staff as their generosity will really benefit a lot of customers from around the region.”

One in every four children, 23.4% of all youngsters in the Sunderland area, live in poverty. The Art of Giving donations will benefit hundreds of families who struggle to pay for essential food and uniform items.

The Art of Giving campaign encourages staff and partners to donate what they can for a number of causes. Earlier this year volunteers donated and delivered Easter Eggs to community members Their Secret Santa campaign also benefitted community members as volunteers donated toys and gifts to be given as Christmas presents to those less fortunate.

Amanda Ladner, Operations Manager (Volunteering), said: “We are delighted with how many generous donations we were able to collect. Each and every item will make a big difference to families across Sunderland and we are very grateful for the generosity shown by Gentoo staff, Barclays, Berghaus and Northern Gas Networks.

“The Art of Giving campaign supports a number of deserving causes on a regular basis and we are thrilled to have the opportunity to work with some great charities and organisations to make a difference to people’s lives.”

Gentoo Group’s whole ethos is about believing nothing is impossible and finding new ways to challenge conventions, Gentoo aims to make society a better place to live and to make a real difference to the way people live their life. To find out more about Gentoo, visit gentoogroup.com for more information or follow @gentoogroup on Twitter.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Emily Morris .