NEWSLETTER #12
Winter 2023-24
27 January 2024
Come as you are, bring what you can and take what you need
2,000+ Freezer meals and counting!
- We have had the pleasure of providing over 2,000 freezer meals from our Community Freezer since the launch of our freezer meal scanning system in February 2023.
- Thank you to everyone who has popped into The Keepers and taken a meal away with them.
- Thank you to those that have donated towards the meals to help cover the costs for those who can't afford to pay at this time.
- Thank you to our amazing Kitchen team who plan, prepare and cook these delicious meals.
- Thank you to our volunteers and staff who make sure all meals are given out with a food label and a smile!
- The Community Freezer is here for everyone in the community. To find out what we have in the freezer, please go to:
We have a range of meals on offer, all on a Pay As You Feel basis
A very Keepers' Christmas
- Santa joined us again at The Town Hall during Wotton's Christmas Under the Edge event on Saturday 2nd December - thanks Santa!
- We ran our Christmas Food Bags campaign with the help of our Reverse Advent Calendar. Thanks to our little helpers: donors, shoppers, coordinators and packers!
- HAF School Holiday activities ran including Get Arty and Get Cooking
- The Keepers' Cook book was published as a perfect stocking filler (available from The Cotswold Book Room in Wotton or The Keepers on Symn Lane - £6)
- Three additional Christmas cafés ran on 23rd, 27th and 29th December.
- Christmas Carols were sung at the café on 23rd December - thanks in particular to our musicians and soloists!
- We hosted a very merry Christmas Lunch at The Keepers on Christmas Day - thanks to all those who supported and ran it.
- If you donated to us in any way over the Christmas period - we really appreciate it, and it all went towards helping our communities.
In the Bleak Midwinter
New digital sign-in system
Matthew, who introduced our freezer meal scanner system earlier this year, has now brought in an electronic sign-in system using a tablet device instead of handwritten sign-in sheets. This will allow us to more easily gather and analyse footfall data in the Hub, saving our data analyst a lot of time!
Thank you Matthew!
New Team Member
We were delighted to welcome Nikki to the team in December as our new Community Outreach Worker:
“I'm excited to have joined the lovely team here at The Keepers.
My role will be to support all the great community activities already taking place in Wotton-under-Edge and the surrounding villages and, together with Simone, our Community Outreach Manager, I'll be helping to bring together more services to support and connect local people and develop ideas to bring The Keepers to the heart of each community.
Initially I will be based at our satellite hub The Keepers in Kingswood where I will be helping with the day to day operations and working to deliver more activities and initiatives there.
You’ll also see me at The Keepers in Wotton-Under-Edge where I'll be covering Duty Manager responsibilities on a Wednesday.
It’s been great getting to know those of you who already visit The Keepers and I look forward to welcoming those who will visit us in the future.”
Nikki - our new Community Outreach Worker
The Keepers' Outreach
Over the past year, our Outreach project has been exploring different ways in which we can bring The Keepers to our local villages.
As a result of this work, you will now be able to find The Keepers at the following:
The Keepers in Kingswood is...
... our first satellite community hub that offers a space for anyone to pop in for a chat, have a drink and eat cake on a pay-as-you-feel basis. We offer help with signposting to local groups and services, provide support for various needs and we can make Foodbank referrals. Plus, there are regular drop-in sessions from local organisations such as Men’s Shed and Longfield Hospice.
Find out more here: https://www.thekeepers.org.uk/keepers-in-kingswood
- When: Drop-in café - Tuesday 2pm - 4.30pm and Friday 10am - 1pm
- Community Pantry - Monday - Saturday 10am - 4pm
- Where: Drop-in café - Lower School Room, 1 The Walk, Kingswood, GL12 8RP
- Community Pantry - St Mary’s Church, Kingswood, GL12 8RS
The Keepers’ drop-in sessions
We are very pleased to be linking with local community activities to be able to offer drop-in sessions at the following locations:
- Where: Kindie-Tots, The Kindergarten Pre-School, The British School, Wortley Road, GL12 7JU
- When: Every Tuesday 10am - 11am (term-time) for those attending Kindie-Tots Stay and Play session, free to attend.
- Where: Coffee and Craft morning at North Nibley Chapel, Barrs Lane, North Nibley, Dursley, GL11 6DT
- When: Every Wednesday 10am - 12pm, everyone is welcome, pay-as-you-feel.
More community hubs and drop-in sessions will be added in the coming months as we continue to work behind the scenes to bring The Keepers to more of our local communities.
Did you know...?
The Keepers is now open in the evenings
In our last survey, you told us you wanted The Keepers to run activities in the evenings too so a greater range of people could benefit. And, we listened! The Keepers now run the following in the evening - come along!
- Wotton Area Menopause Support - 1st Mondays and 3rd Thursdays 7.00 – 8.30p.m
- Talk Club - 1st and 3rd Wednesdays 7.00 – 8.30p.m
- Wotton Area Neurodivergent Support - last Wednesday of the month 7.00 – 9.00p.m
- French for Beginners / The Terrified – every Thursday 7.30 – 8.30p.m
- Death Café - every third Tuesday of the month, 7.00 - 9.00p.m
Evening opening hours - you suggested, we listened!
CEO Update
The Keepers' CEO, Chris
2023 was another year of tremendous growth and change at The Keepers - it is hard to think that the organisation has only been in existence for three years. New staff and volunteers have come on board, new services and courses have been added to the weekly calendar and there are always new visitors that cross the threshold and remark "I didn't realise that you did all these things!".
At the end of the year the build up to Christmas was an incredibly busy period. It saw volunteers wrapping presents, shopping for and distributing food bags for families, and there were a large number of extra days we were active including the Christmas week itself. A fabulous Christmas lunch was shared with our customers and there were also soup/cake cafes over the festive period. All of this whilst we had a bout of Covid that affected the community.
Over the course of the year we distributed 221 food bags which helped 728 individuals. We always time our food bag programme at those times of the year when we know it can be most difficult for families - Christmas and Easter when there is extra financial pressure on people and during the Summer when the kids are off school and not receiving school meals.
In many ways the food bag activity is a microcosm of the work we do - we aim to be there for people at all times. Christmas can be a lovely time of year for many but it can also be a time of extreme social isolation and loneliness so we hope we made Christmas 2023 a little bit happier for some people.
The New Year will hopefully herald the expansion of our transport system to help people come to The Keepers and that of our Outreach programme which helps bring the services of The Keepers out into the Community. We will continue with our aim to become more digital - first came our freezer meal system, then the sign in tablet and we hope to fully automate our What's on communication this year too. We have lots of other ideas about how we can add to what we offer so watch this space!
Updates
Garden Update
New life is emerging!
Unfortunately, given the season, the garden is not very photogenic at the moment, but signs of spring are coming!
What we have been doing:
- Planting bulbs
- Planning to add another terrace to the bank
- Looking after our new hot bin composter and trying to get the perfect balance of "green" and "brown" materials to get it up to temperature (50c!) Thank you to Rotary for donating it to us!
- Pruning hedges, roses etc
- And before Christmas everyone made their own wreaths with foliage from the garden.
Volunteer Sarah getting stuck into composting
New Activities
Rainbow Cuppa
Our first ever 'Rainbow Cuppa' started up in November. This was a chance for all LGBTQ+ folk and allies to get together and have a brew and a natter.
Death Café
Our first ever 'Death Café' ran on 16th January 2024 and will run every third Tuesday of the month from 7-9pm.
These are a chance to drink tea, eat cake and discuss death (other drinks available).
The aim is to increase awareness of death to help people make the most of their (finite) lives.
French for Beginners / The Terrified
We are proud to present a brand new evening class every Thursday evening 7.30pm - 8.30pm in association with the Wotton & Beaumont Twinning Society. This is an informal French conversation group for Beginners.
The aims of the group are:
- to give the foundations for a basic conversation in French
- to boost your confidence around "just having a go"
- to recognise that making a mistake is not a big deal
- to get to know new people including Twinning members
- most importantly, to have fun!
For anyone wanting to speak some French, whatever your level
Courses at The Keepers
- Creative Writing Workshops
- Baking for Beginners
- I.T. Adult Education course
If you would like to be contacted regarding any future similar courses running at The Keepers then please get in touch at:
Trustee Corner
Here is an update from our Communications and Wellbeing Trustee, Laura Britton-Griffiths:
This newsletter, I'd like to take a moment to celebrate two members of the team who go above and beyond for The Keepers and have done since the beginnings of its precursor, Wotton Area Mutual Aid (WAMA):
- Shaenna, our Chair of Trustees, and
- Gail, our Operations Trustee...
... have been the driving forces behind the amazing progress The Keepers has made in 2.5 years. Here is a bit more about their respective contributions:
Shaenna has led on governance for The Keepers from the beginning and has secured the majority of The Keepers' grant funding. She exceeded even her own expectations at the end of last year when she won The Keepers its most significant grant yet from the National Lottery which will enable us to progress our strategy over the next 3 years.
Gail is the "engine" behind The Keepers' operations. One example is how she has led the Hub's food provision strategy, firstly being inspired by Long Table's freezer meal programme, installing our professional-grade kitchen (and achieving a 5-star food hygiene rating in the first year), rejuvenating The Keepers' garden to make it possible to grow veggies, and now we are in the enviable position of producing our own freezer meals - and have provided more than 2,000 to our visitors.
Both Gail and Shaenna do so, so much more than what I have mentioned above, but I think these examples demonstrate the extent of their skills, passion and perseverance dedicated to our Hub over several years. They do not get enough recognition (and they would hate that I am writing about them, I'm sure!) but I wanted to take this opportunity to thank them wholeheartedly for all they do for The Keepers every day, working hard to make our Community Hub the resounding success that it is and laying the foundations for it to continue succeeding for the years to come.
We are very lucky to have Gail and Shaenna in the team!
Future Events
The Keepers' Quiz Night
- We are excited to announce that the Keepers' Quiz is back on Saturday 10th February at Blue Coat School.
- You can either buy 6 tickets for a full table, or individual tickets and we'll put you together with others to make the winning team!!
- We will also be running our own bar stocked with locally produced drinks and snacks.
- Just click on the link below to buy your tickets at £6 each now!!
To see what's on at The Keepers each week, just click below:
Get Involved...
There are lots of ways to get involved and/or to support The Keepers:
* Volunteer - there are a number of different roles/jobs.
* Fundraise - running a small event, or making a regular or one-off donation on our website. We are also looking for volunteers to join our fundraising committee. You can also take part in the Lucky Severn Lottery that takes place each week. Click here for more info. If you decide to join in, remember to choose The Keepers as your charity to support!
* Share info with neighbours, friends and colleagues who may not receive our newsletter.
* Follow us and like our posts on Social Media to ensure the information gets to as many people as possible.
* Easyfundraising - We’re now registered with Easyfundraising, which means you can help us for FREE. Over 7,000 shops will donate to us when you use Easyfundraising to shop with them online – at no extra cost to you. All you need to do is sign up and remember to use Easyfundraising whenever you shop online. These donations really mount up, so please sign up to support us by clicking the button below. By signing up, you aren't agreeing to do anything - just that you'll try to go through Easyfundraising when you shop online.
We have produced some easy-to-follow instructions which you can find here
If you would like to made a donation to us directly, you can do so by clicking the button below or through our website. Many thanks for your support!
