Central England Co-op partners with East Staffordshire Borough Council and Burton Albion Community Trust for ground-breaking scheme to get food and essentials to vulnerable people

Posted by rob smyth | Published: 21/04/2020

Central England Co-op has teamed up with East Staffordshire Borough Council and Burton Albion Community Trust to launch a ground-breaking project aimed at getting vital food and essentials to vulnerable members of the local community.

The retailer will link up with council workers and trust staff to create a community hub at its Stapenhill Food Store.

East Staffordshire Borough Council will then identify vulnerable community members, gather orders and pass them onto the store. Central England Co-op colleagues will then create a package and take payment from the customer over the phone before the Burton Albion Community Trust delivers the goods.

The launch of this project comes after the scheme was successfully trialled in Lichfield, Stafford and Derby.

The rollout of the project in Burton is part of plan to create similar projects based out of Central England Co-op community hub stores across the 16 counties it trades in and even farther afield on a national scale.

Debbie Robinson, Chief Executive of Central England Co-op, said: “Co-operation is key to our communities coming together during this uncertain time and this is why we have linked up with East Staffordshire Borough Council to launch this pioneering scheme during this uncertain time.

“This unique project will see the council contact vulnerable people in the community and work with us to deliver food and essentials to them.

“This is a great example of communities and organisations coming together at a time of need and creating a solution that will make a difference.

“Our trials in Lichfield, Stafford and Derby have been and continue to be a great success. This is why we have now been able to launch in Burton with our great partners East Staffordshire Borough Council and Burton Albion Community Trust to help more people in the local area.

“We have further plans in place to rapidly roll out this out across other locations to make sure we support as many people as we can in the coming weeks.”

East Staffordshire Borough Councillor Duncan Goodfellow said: “it is essential that organisations that can provide support come together to ensure that those people most at risk are cared for in the best way possible.

“I am proud that East Staffordshire Borough Council has joined forces with Central England Co-op and Burton Albion Community Trust to deliver this ground-breaking provision.

“This service will ensure that the most vulnerable people in our communities are able to get the vital food and essentials they need during these unprecedented times.”

Notes to editors

Picture caption: Central England Co-op launches new food scheme to help the vulnerable with East Staffordshire Borough Council and Burton Albion Community Trust. James Knight, from Central England Co-op, will be leading the project.

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, travel 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 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