Staff donate christmas party funds to charity

Three charities benefited from a generous gesture by staff at housing association mhs homes when they chose to donate the money that had been set aside for the staff Christmas party.

2020 was a year of social distancing and cancellations, and the mhs homes Christmas party was no exception.

The idea to donate the Christmas party budget was suggested by mhs homes’ Customer Liaison Officer, Ann-Marie Steadman. Ann-Marie said, “I’m really chuffed at how the suggestion was accepted and with the amount that was raised. it had been such a strange year and we all did our best to get through it, but many others were not so fortunate, and we had to do something to help them.

“As a company we pride ourselves on our charitable work, so I thought why not do this? The email went to Ash and lo and behold it was agreed by the Board.”

In lieu of the Christmas party, each staff member was allocated £10 to donate to a charity of their choice.  In total, an amazing £3,180 was donated to the Campaign Against Living Miserably, Medway Foodbank and Time for the Homeless.

“These are three wonderful charities that everyone at mhs homes are delighted to be able to donate to. We hope the funds can go some way in aiding them in their missions to combat suicide, food poverty and homelessness respectively”, said Ashley Hook, mhs homes Chief Executive.

“This fabulous idea is truly a testament to the kind of people we have working at mhs. This money could have been used to treat colleagues in a different way but they chose to send it to those who needed it most.”

£1,070 of the total went to Medway Foodbank, a charity that provides emergency food for people in times of crisis in Medway.

Project Manager Lorraine Schulze said “Huge thanks from us at Medway Foodbank for the generous donation. Life continues to be hard for many people – we are getting calls from people who have never used a foodbank before, have never been out of work before and who have never used the benefits system before.

“Last year we fed over 11,500 in Medway. When I started this role 2 years ago we fed 5,800 – sadly a huge increase in need, so all donations are very gratefully received.”