Donating to local children and homeless shelters

Turning a mini disaster into a big triumph

"Thankfully with some team work and help from the porters we managed to turn a mini disaster into a big triumph. The Brilliant Club had an event with us on Monday 16 March and we were providing lunch. Over twenty schools cancelled that morning, leaving us with lots of unwanted lunch.

The Brilliant Club are a partner organisation with whom we work to provide PhD students to tutor children. The children show high Academic potential but are from backgrounds which are under represented at higher education and may well be disadvantaged, i.e in care, or from lower socioeconomic-economic backgrounds (free school meals etc).

We were expecting 270 children but over two thirds of schools cancelled the morning of the event. The event still ran all day and the children had a great day. We managed to send the children home with very full tummies and some food for the road but still had 140 fresh sandwiches left.

Helping local shelters

Anything longer life I stored away for future events but the fresh sandwiches I took to a local couple who support homeless shelters in Coventry, they said they were for younger people and the Coventry Foyer. I got their details from Coventry food bank via local MP, Zarah Sultana.

Our colleagues in estates went above and beyond by taking the food to the car park and helping me load the sandwiches into my car. The delivery was a success and we packed away the longer life items for future events - making this a zero waste event!

Helping school children with free bags

On another note, we also gave two-hundred tote bags and pens to a teacher from Myton school who got in touch with concerns that students would struggle to take all their resources home and have basic stationery.

I was in work to collect some homeworking equipment and with the help of a colleague, we managed to source what they needed and give the items to the teacher before the end of the school day.

A temporary farewell

It was lovely and also sad to see colleagues for the last time for a few weeks at least.

It made me as proud as ever to work at Warwick, everyone was rushing around helping people get the equipment they needed and wishing everyone the best.

Well done team."