Interview with our Charitable Impact Manager
How has your role changed during the Covid pandemic?
I started a new role as Charitable Impact Manager, just as the pandemic hit. It’s been a really fast paced year, with many opportunities to change pace and focus in order to adapt the way that we are serving the community. My role focuses on supporting the charity to widen its support for the community, and it’s been a year when families and households have needed that support more than ever. Whether its applying for grant funds, or setting up our Cooking at Home support, or working with other organisations and schools in the City to support the response to the Pandemic – my current role is really varied and I’m so proud of how everyone has adapted.
What’s the most fulfilling thing about your role?
Hearing from families and households and how we have helped. We have supported over 1,800 families this year through our Cooking at Home program – a number that we have never achieved before! Seeing a photo of a child proud of a meal that they’ve cooked at home with their families, with our support, means the absolute world! I often think of our Care Meals teams, and how those that they visit and serve meals to have been most impacted by the restrictions this year. How amazing that we’ve still be able to get out there, make sure that they have a hot meal, and the opportunity to say hello and have someone check-in on them every weekday? It’s so vital right now, more than ever.
What’s the hardest part of your role?
The chop-and-change. Never really knowing what is coming, and having to re-plan before we have sometimes fully implemented the last plan. I love the fast pace and the opportunity to get stuck in and help; but the change has been really challenging for many reasons. Financially, logistically, emotionally. We’ve never stopped and have learnt so much as a result. We are stronger for it, but the impact has absolutely been felt by every single one of us at City Catering.
Why should people support us?
“Right now, charities like ours are vital. I think the world now understands in more ways than it ever had before, the role that food plays in our communities, in our daily lives, in our health, in our security and comfort. Good food is so, so important for everyone. ”
Right now, charities like ours are vital. I think the world now understands in more ways than it ever had before, the role that food plays in our communities, in our daily lives, in our health, in our security and comfort. Good food is so, so important for everyone. I think we have also seen in many ways how vital school food is to a child’s well-being. We want to survive this pandemic so that we can continue to make a nutritional difference in the lives of children; so that we can continue to prioritise quality, to learn and adapt our service to best serve the community and to give children opportunities that they may otherwise not have.
We know, now more than ever, how often school lunch is the only reliable hot meal a child can access – we long to get back to ‘normal’ to ensure that no one misses this opportunity. Extended school closures have had a devastating impact on our charity, and helping to protect our ability to be here in 2, 5, or 10 years’ time will have a huge benefit on Southampton’s community. And whilst school meals is 90% of what we do, our Meals on Wheels service is so, so needed for many vulnerable and elderly residents in the city. It’s more than a meal for those residents; its safety, reliability, comfort, connection, warmth.
I really value every single person who takes the time to donate with their own money that they have worked hard to earn – as someone who regularly donates to charities, I get how important it is to support charities that you have faith in, so it really does mean the world. It enables us to keep adapting, keep being agile and responsive to the pandemic challenges, helps us keep our teams and customers safe, helps us put good food on the plate, and to keep making the difference that we are so passionate about.