Chance Changing Lives

This week at our Saturday Kitchen saw us serve up a full Christmas Dinner for 52 guests. Father Christmas was in attendance and gave out gifts to everyone as well as a takeaway bag for the next day. Each gift contained a Dove toiletries set, and the takeaway bags contained a meat pie, crisps, water, sweets, mince pie, Christmas cake, an orange and a banana. The meat pies were donated from Longman's Butchers and the mince pies from J Hulse Bakery in Worleston. Our tables were beautifully decorated by our volunteers with support from The Julia Rausing Trust who purchased the table cloths, crackers, napkins, chocolates and the Dove gift sets for us. Our Christmas Dinner was kindly donated by The Royal Oak Worleston, Harlech Foods and Freshview Foods. We were pleased to offer a full Turkey Dinner consisting of Turkey, Yorkshire pudding, mash potato, roast potatoes, carrots, sprouts and delicious gravy followed by sticky toffee pudding 😋 Our volunteers are just amazing. They gave up their time on the busiest Saturday of the year to spread Christmas Cheer to those for whom Christmas can be a difficult time of year. They shared smiles and laughter, but were still there with a listening ear for those who needed to talk. Additional thank you’s to The Wishing Well Project for hosting us, Cheshire Community Foundation and The National Lottery Community Fund. Like what we do? To make a difference donate to us today ⬇️⬇️ https://lnkd.in/egK77TJc #ChanceChangingLives #SmallCharityBigImpact #SaturdayKitchen #CommunityPantry #Nantwich #TNLCommunityFund #NationalLottery #Crewe #Donations #volunteering

As we dash headlong into the festive period, I want to take a moment to share some thoughts of last 12 months, our journey and to celebrate our achievements. I honestly cannot remember a year rushing by quite as quickly as 2024. December 2023, I naively stepped into the world of charity management with a huge amount of nervous trepidation. And what a journey it’s been. Everywhere I go, I feel honoured to represent this amazing and unique community charity. When I meet our service users, when I spend time with our volunteers, and when I am meeting our donors and benefactors, I am always immensely proud to be representing Chance Changing Lives, to be shouting about the work we do, the success we achieve and the humanity and compassion every one of our volunteers demonstrate. We continue to serve on average 200 adults and 100 children. We have improved the circumstances of 50 households, provided 150 health and wellbeing interventions and 70 rough sleeping survival packs. We have provided over 100 hardship referrals to supporting partners including Cheshire East and Pennysmart and have made the lives of each of our service users immeasurably better for these efforts. This year we recruited our biggest ever influx of volunteers. We have targeted and strengthened our engagement in the community. Our supporters not only witness the amazing work we do, they also want to be involved alongside us. Whether volunteering, generously donating or providing other support. In 2025 we will continue to develop the charity, expanding our services, community projects and reach. Projects in conjunction with our friends at The Wishing Well such as the Slow Cooker Club and the Community Football Project. Projects which provide opportunities for life learning and skills development, whilst providing vital social and community inclusion for a broad demographic of people who are subject to social exclusion due to their life circumstance, because of who they are, because of how they look. Our projects and support provide them a dignified safe space to develop and thrive. The Christmas season really hammers home the impact of poverty and deprivation. For many people Christmas is not a time for celebration, it’s a time for survival. And for those families Christmas will be soul destroying. Our efforts at the Community Pantry and the Saturday Kitchen go a long way to making the festive season a happier time for many of them. Our volunteers will be giving up their own time across the holiday period to ensure those in need are still able to access Chance Changing Lives. It’s that unwavering dedication that makes our Charity a rewarding place to volunteer. It’s in our culture and in our DNA, to serve tirelessly and relentlessly to make our community a better place for everyone. On behalf of the trustees, the staff, but most importantly, for every service user that has needed support may I wish you a happy and peaceful festive period. Martyn General Manager

For our charity to achieve our stated objectives we rely heavily on support from our local community. Exemplified here with a fantastic donation from NWF Fuels ❤️❤️❤️

This amazing work and vision from Charles Maines and the Wishing Well has now been recognised on TV. Here at Chance Changing Lives a number of our service users and volunteers have contributed to this fantastic initiative. We are proud to be community partners to Wishing Well, making tangible differences to peoples lives.

🍽️🍽️GRUB FOR GOOD RAFFLE🍽️🍽️ With the Nantwich Food Festival approaching, we’ve teamed up with our amazing local hospitality friends to put together a brilliant fundraiser. For a £10 donation you will be entered into a raffle with a chance to win one of 7 hospitality prizes, generously donated by the hospitality community in Nantwich. You can enter as many times are you like. All proceeds will go to Chance Changing Lives. Every £10 donated will feed a local family of 4 for 2 weeks at our Community Pantry or provide a 2 course meal for 4 people at our Saturday Kitchen. Prizes include: 🍽️ St Martha - Feast for 8 people 🍽️ Cafe De Paris - Afternoon cheese for 2 people 🍽️ The Red Cow - Sunday roast for 4 people 🍽️ Bench Bistro - Afternoon tea for 2 people 🍽️ The Leopard - Dirty food feast for 6 people 🍽️ Three Wrens Gin - Gin tasting for 4 people 🍽️ Jordy's & Bar 6 - £50 pizza voucher & £50 bar tab (to be used on a Thursday at 6pm) To enter this amazing raffle please use the link below ⬇️⬇️ https://lnkd.in/e4cXzGW8 #ChanceChangingLives #SmallCharityBigImpact #CommunityPantry #SaturdayKitchen #Nantwich #Crewe #Donations #volunteering Our Terms and Conditions: This promotion is organised by Chance Changing Lives under society lottery registration LTR847 registered with Cheshire East Council, Charity number: 1177984 Date of the draw: 9th September 2024 Prizes will be issued in the form of a voucher from Chance Changing Lives. Vouchers must be redeemed by 30th November 2024 Entrants must be 16 years old or over

We were proud to host our wonderful friends from the The Guinness Partnership and Novus Property Solutions on Monday and to accept a fantastic food donation from Nikita and Kate. Our partnership with both organisations is crucial, enabling Chance Changing Lives to be making significant, meaningful differences to those in society who we serve with dignity and compassion. Thank you both xxx

Here at Chance we are extremely proud to provide all of our members with fresh fruit and vegetables every week. We believe in offering a balanced and nutritional selection of food and have lots on offer seasonally for our members to choose from. Most of our fruit and veg comes from Clem's Traditional Greengrocers with some also coming in from our collection points reducing food waste. Like the work that we do? To help us make a difference donate to us today ⬇️⬇️ https://lnkd.in/egK77TJc #ChanceChangingLives #SmallCharityBigImpact #CommunityPantry #SaturdayKitchen #Nantwich #Crewe #Donations #volunteering

Are you looking for a new challenge? Our new salaried role of Van Driver and Logistics Coordinator is now open for applications. 📍Around Crewe, Nantwich & Surrounding Areas ⏰ 7am-12pm, Monday & Friday (10 hours per week) 💷 Salary £23,020 pro rata (£11.80 per hour) 📧 To apply email jm.admin@chancechanginglives.org 📆 Closing date 30th June In this role you would be primarily responsible for supporting the smooth, efficient, and effective operation of the Community Pantry and other areas of the Charity to ensure that our shop is stocked with the necessary fresh and stock food items supplied through our network of donors and partnered stores throughout Crewe. This will be achieved by performing the store collections on Community Pantry opening days, supporting the stock management activities at the pantry and off-site storage, and ensuring the charity van is fully maintained and available for use by other charity volunteers and managers as needed. You will ensure that the people using the service and our volunteers are placed at the heart of everything the charity does in pursuit of its vision and mission. You will play a critical part in supporting disadvantaged families and children in the community. You will be an ambassador for Chance and will contribute to significantly reducing environmental food waste. Key Requirements • Must be 30 years of age or older (due to insurance considerations). • A full clean driving license. • Demonstrated strong communication skills. • Ownership minded and driven. • Physically fit and active due to the nature of the work. • Ability to plan work and act with initiative. You can find further details of the job listing here: https://lnkd.in/e9cFx3z4

⭐️⭐️ MEET THE VOLUNTEER ⭐️⭐️ 1/2 I started my volunteering role in March 2023. At that time Chance Changing Lives were hiring volunteers. Having been 15 months into early retirement my wife suggested I volunteer. Clearly, I was getting in the way at home! I had never volunteered in my life, so this was to be a very new experience for me. I have volunteered regularly in the Community Pantry and at the Saturday Kitchen. However, my first role with Chance was supporting the food collections in our little Nissan van. Basically, the role entails performing early morning food collections from the local stores on a Monday and Friday, collecting food which the stores can no longer sell and is destined for landfill sites. We collect it and distribute it out to our services users as part of their weekly shop at the community pantry. Typically, we are collecting chilled food, fresh breads and pastries and vegetables of which families can take as much as they need. In addition to the regular Monday and Friday morning store collections, we also collect from our donation’s stations dotted around the area, collect bulk food deliveries from some of our larger benefactors and support other local Charities to support their logistical needs as and when they need our services. And we regularly move our own stock backwards and forwards from our offsite storage facilities to the pantry and vice versa. You may have seen our little van eagerly driving around the streets of Crewe and Nantwich, collecting all manner of goods to keep our Community Pantry stocked. However, you may not always hear it. As well as doing our bit for recycling food waste, our little Nissan is electric powered, meaning it’s also kinder to the environment. We take our environmental responsibilities to the community very seriously. We love our little Nissan van and if you do see us passing by, give us a wave or a toot on your horn. Volunteering for Chance Changing Lives ultimately led me to the position of General Manager, and I was very humbled and privileged to take up this role in December 2023. This has become the most fulfilling, challenging and emotionally charged role I've ever had. I've laughed and cried in equal measure. Sometimes when we have a particularly tough engagement to support our service users the emotions can get to me a bit. But working with our services users to improve their life circumstances has to be one of the most rewarding experience I have ever had. I have met so many people from all walks of life needing our support, it really hits home just how close we all are to finding ourselves in the most difficult circumstances through nothing more than chance. It’s why the work we do is so critical to those who come to us in need. It’s literally life changing. Over the last few days, you will have read stories and testimony from our volunteers as we celebrate National Volunteer week.

⭐️⭐️ MEET THE VOLUNTEER ⭐️⭐️ I spent a long and very interesting professional career working in Criminal Justice. I have lots of experience of working with people from all types of backgrounds but I did not get a lot of exposure of working in the charity sector. In 2017, along with four like minded friends, we became concerned about the growing number of homeless people in Crewe and decided that we could make a valuable contribution to their everyday lives. Within a few months we had set up the charity and started to recruit a team of volunteers. Seven years later, the charity continues to grow. As the Chair of Trustees, I probably give upto 20 hours of my time each week. We have 5 trustees, all volunteers as well as 50 other volunteers. Our volunteers alone donate over 5,000 hours per year. The charity would not exist without our volunteers. Each volunteer brings their own skills, knowledge and talent. They come from a diverse range of backgrounds and provide a 'dream team' to support our service users. Everyone is a valuable asset to the charity and they all make a huge impact on the people we support. On a personal level, I have learnt so much over the past seven years. I have met so many volunteers and each one has made their unique contribution. I feel very fortunate to be Chair of this charity and to have the opportunity to work alongside such a kind, committed and loyal bunch of talented volunteers. A huge heartfelt thank you to all the volunteers out there, we certainly couldn't exist without you ~ Sandra, Trustee & Volunteer ~