Central England Co-op Funeralcare gives bags of summer support to kids

Posted by james brindle | Published: 24/08/2020

Derbyshire children were given some fun and educational support by a local funeral home at a recent community event.

A. Storer & Sons Funeral Services held the event at their premises on Nottingham Road, Somercotes on Friday, 21 August and set up an Elf School where they gave away free bags containing educational books, crafts and creative activities for children to support their learning and to keep them entertained during the remainder of the school holidays.

The bags of goodies which included materials for reading, spelling and maths along with pens, pencils, a pencil case and a craft kit were paid for with a £1,000 donation from Central England Co-operative’s Membership and Community Council for the region.

Local minister Reverend Chris Ibbs attended the event and took some of the goody bags to the Food Bank at the Church of Christ at Riddings for distribution to those most in need in the area.

The event included a drawing competition for children aged 3-11 who were invited to draw their favourite monkey with prizes for three age groups and the opportunity to have their work displayed in the windows for everyone to see.

Sheena Powell, A. Storer & Sons’ Funeral Administrator, said: “I suggested the idea as I felt in and around Alfreton many children were falling behind with school work and it is a way to support not only our community but to help the children learn in a fun way.

“I dressed as an Elf at Christmas, taking presents out to people with the local minister and I thought it was time the elf made an appearance once more as an "Educating Elf" in an Elf school outside the funeral home.”

The local event was also inspired by the wider summer scheme by Central England Co-op, which runs until September to collect food for those impacted by holiday hunger in local Co-op stores.

This year other items needed include small arts and crafts items such as crayons and paints and school supplies such as pencil cases and stationery to help the most disadvantaged children with their school work over the Summer. Donations of these items can continue to be made at Central England Co-op stores until September.

Notes to editors

About Central England Co-operative

Central England Co-operative is one of the largest independent retail co-operative societies in the UK with interests in food, funeral, floral and property investment.

Co-operatives have always been there for their communities; they were formed to protect them and help them flourish. 

Our 7,900 colleagues who serve Members and customers work hard to ensure that co-operative values, principles and spirit flow through everything we do to help support and improve our local communities.

Owned by hundreds of thousands of Members, we have over 430 trading outlets across 16 counties including West Midlands, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire. 

We are proud of our reputation for ethical business practices and corporate responsibility.

We invest a percentage of our trading profit into local communities through our Community Dividend Fund scheme, have donated over £1.3 million to our corporate charity partner Dementia UK and also operate a pioneering food redistribution partnership with FareShare Midlands so unsold food goes to those in need.

Visit www.centralengland.coop for more information or follow us on Facebook or Twitter using @mycoopfood

Press office contacts: Rob Smyth and James Brindle

Phone - 01543 421390

Email - publicrelations@centralengland.coop