January Newsletter! An update from Cre8

We had another fantastic year redistributing the surplus food from supermarkets on Christmas Eve.

Having been donated boxes from Oliver Valves, presents from the Entertainer, and picking up food from both Aldi, Co-op, and Marks & Spencer, we packed over 100 hampers and with a small army of volunteers distributed them across Macclesfield.

A massive thank you to all the churches, individuals and, different groups who donated and who were involved on the night.

Amy, Keirra, and some Young people from the clubs had a great trip out to watch the Rugby match between Sale Sharks and Exeter Chiefs. Despite it being pretty chilly they had a great time.

Thank you for the tickets Sale Sharks!

Older Persons and Carers Christmas Party

We held the annual Older Persons & Carers Christmas party at beginning of December which was a huge success. It was organised in partnership with the Town council, the Carers Hub, St Barnabas, and Space4Autism, and saw over 80 people come along. Everyone enjoyed some festive food, a tombola, a raffle, bingo, and the highlight for many - The Funky Choir. It was a great event getting everybody festive.

Winter Youth Music Concert

We had an amazing evening doing our 7th Music Christmas Concert at St Michaels Church on Sunday 15th. 18 young people performed pieces that they had chosen and rehearsed over the last few months. The concert was the result of many hours of practice and hard work, and a dedicated team of tutors and music support workers. Incredible job to everyone involved.

We were thrilled to be able to announce on the night we have got another 2 years of music funding from Youth Music, and the Love Music Trust, with whom we have already been working in partnership with since 2017. The funding will allow us to expand our delivery, whilst looking to make the project more sustainable by securing paid live sound work. This will use our expertise to provide young people with valuable work experience opportunities.

We were really grateful to Alex Connock who volunteered to take some beautiful photos of the event for us. We were able to share these with friends and family.

New member of our team!

Hi, I'm Emma and I've just started working for Cre8 as their Youth and Community Marketing Intern. I've just graduated from university with a degree in Creative Writing and Media Studies, and am keen to build on this. Having lived in Macclesfield my entire life, I'm excited to join the Cre8 team who are helping the local community I know and love in such an amazing way. I'm already enjoying my time here and am looking forward to the many things to come. Feel free to say hello if you see me around!

Our Grocery is now open twice a week providing individuals and families with 2 bags of surplus food for a £2 donation equivalent to approximately £20 worth of shopping. All this surplus food is donated by supermarkets, other organisations, and individuals, and would otherwise be going to waste. We are having lots of positive feedback about it and are hoping to expand and become mobile in the next few weeks. The Grocery is open to anyone - we have no restrictions - we welcome those who are wanting to help fight the war of food waste!

We currently have 95 households signed in as members which covers 287 people. It's building momentum as word gets out and we're improving the process every week. The Grocery also provides donated surplus food to other charities and organisations working to provide for those in need such as the Hope Centre, Macc Community Kitchen, and ROAR. The plan is to co-ordinate and align the surplus food collection and distribution across the area.

Get in touch with Katy if you'd like to know more about the Grocery. katy.wardle@cre8macclesfield.org

Cre8's January Newsletter!