CREATE

D DAY!

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:31:00 +0000

The Lord Mayor and Leeds City Council staff are ‘digging deep’ in their wardrobes in support of local social enterprise The CREATE Foundation. The unwanted garments will be sold in the glamorous charity boutique, FOUND by Create, located in the St Johns Shopping Centre.

On Tuesday 9^th of March Create will be hosting a donate day at the council offices in Merrion House. Council staff will be invited to make a donation of good quality unwanted clothing, shoes and accessories to the boutique. The Lord Mayor, Councillor Judith Elliot, is showing her support by bringing along a selection of clothing from her own wardrobe.

FOUND by Create is a unique charity shop developed in partnership by award winning social enterprise The CREATE Foundation and the St Johns Shopping Centre. The shopping centre provides a fabulous retail unit, allowing CREATE to operate a clothing boutique in the heart of the city. FOUND stocks high quality pre-loved and vintage garments, along with pieces from up and coming designers and has proved to be a great success since opening last year.

‘We are delighted to have the support of Leeds City Council and the Lord Mayor’ says Sarah Dunwell, CEO of The CREATE Foundation. She added ‘Inspired by Mary Portas these donate days make a real difference to the success of FOUND and help The CREATE Foundation to raise valuable funds for its charity project, FareShare West Yorkshire’.

Tea Cup and Tassels

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:27:00 +0000

Charity boutique, FOUND by Create, and The Leeds Marvellous Tea Company have partnered up to offer a unique tea party with a twist. On 29th April at 6pm the St Johns Centre clothes store will be transformed into a vintage tea room, with a market place of vintage clothes and accessories, together with work from up and coming designers. FOUND is a shop where people can buy, sell and donate and is therefore asking guests to bring an unwanted item from their wardrobe to join in the fun.

The boutique is celebrating all things vintage and will be turning back time with rows of bunting, a DJ playing period music and burlesque girls’ strutting their stuff. The Leeds Marvellous Tea Company will be selling their kitsch cakes and serving fair-trade tea in the cutest vintage china.

FOUND will be exhibiting it’s finest vintage collections, along with various other independent and up and coming designers, in a unique vintage fair. So whilst guests are enjoying a mouthful of home made heaven they can pick up a bespoke & beautiful bargain too. A tombola will also be taking place with an array of fantastic prizes, donated by local organisations and venues.

All the income generated by FOUND is invested into FareShare West Yorkshire, a charity project operated by The CREATE Foundation. FareShare redistributes surplus and donated food to those in need and helps transform the lives of thousands of people across the region.

All FOUND is asking, is for each guest to bring along an unwanted item from the back of their wardrobe. Every donated item sold in FOUND helps raise money for FareShare and helps that unused party dress to find a loving new owner. Download the flyer here of get in touch for more information.

In the heart of Leeds

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 21:51:00 +0000

As part of a fruitful partnership CREATE Food was delighted to be the caterer of choice for Leeds Community Foundation and The Chambers this week.

In the launch of a vital project to support the work of Leeds Community Foundation, CREATE showcased its bespoke canapé range to the exclusively invited guests.

With over 50 of the most significant Leeds business leaders, Leeds Community Foundation shared its vision for supporting some of the most deprived communities in Leeds.

Jonathan Morgan of Morgan’s City living talked of the two speed city in which some move in the fast lane of success and others are overtaken by that success. “Those who share the success of the city have a responsibility to support the underprivileged members of the Leeds community” Jonathan commented.

CREATE is proud to draw its motivated and talented team of staff from the community of homeless people and ex-offenders in the city.

Serving beautiful hand made canapés and drinks Sarah Dunwell from CREATE commented “in the heart of the city and in the company of the most successful people, CREATE is proud to deliver a top quality service with people who want a hand up, not a hand out”.

Bringing the vision to Bradford

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 08:20:00 +0000

Award winning social business, The CREATE Foundation, is launching CREATE Bradford this month with the opening of Café Create at The Thornbury Centre. CREATE runs several successful businesses, all of which provide training, work experience and employment to vulnerable and marginalised adults. Café Create, along with CREATE Food catering services will be launched at The Thornbury Centre on Wednesday 27th January at 13:00pm.

The launch of Café CREATE at The Thornbury Centre is the start of both a great partnership and of a great Bradford based Social Enterprise. The Café will offer the local community a superb range of delicious home made food, with an honest friendly service, in a warm and welcoming surrounding.

CREATE Bradford will also be operating a franchise of the well established professional catering business CREATE Food, providing catering at both the Thornbury Conference Centre and across the whole of Bradford. With a variety of mouth-watering menus, whether it's a business conference or training, wedding or celebration, CREATE Bradford can create a menu to suit any event.

Not only will CREATE Bradford bring a professional and excellent service to the city but it will also create valuable opportunities in training, work experience and employment for vulnerable adults from the local area; those who face barriers in gaining training or employment elsewhere.

Representatives of the Thornbury Centre, the council, local businesses and the voluntary sector will be joining The Create Foundation to celebrate this new and exciting venture at the launch of the new Bradford based Café CREATE.

For more information visit: www.createbradford.org

Christmas Cheer

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 20:58:00 +0000

FareShare West Yorkshire is operated by the award winning social business CREATE in Holbeck. FareShare re-distributes fit for purpose surplus food - donated by food producers and retailers - to disadvantaged and vulnerable people and this Christmas goes from strength to strength.

With coverage from the Yorkshire Post and an Early Days Motion praising the work of FareShare the response has been fantastic.

FareShare West Yorkshire project manager Charlie Wilkinson, said: “We are delighted at the support for our campaign – every pound that we receive will make a difference.”

Today the BBC broadcast live from the headquarters of FareShare in Leeds a record number of eight times, bringing the message of reducing food poverty to millions.

Through its Christmas Leftovers campaign, it hopes to raise money to support its work and increase awareness of the plight of thousands of people across Leeds and West Yorkshire who are trapped in food poverty.

He pointed out: “On average, people spend approximately £3 on a meal during each working day and if that same amount were donated it would pay for the delivery costs of food parcels for six local families, providing up to 60% of their weekly food.”

He added: “With the credit crunch and growing unemployment, more and more people in Leeds and other parts of West Yorkshire face the prospect of going hungry this Christmas – which is ironic when considering that across the UK food wasted over the festive period rises by 80% when compared with other times of the year. The cost of the additional 230,000 tonnes that is thrown away is a staggering £275 million.”

Since its launch eight months ago, FareShare West Yorkshire has re-distributed more than 100 tonnes of food and for each of those tonnes 2,381 meals can be provided for those in need.

Sarah Dunwell, CEO of CREATE which operates FareShare in West Yorkshire, was overwhelmed by the response, “CREATE is all about changing lives, taking tough situations and seeing them differently. From the dozens of staff and even more apprentices in Leeds, Bradford and Doncaster who have been homeless to the people who receive food other people thought best for landfill, we see change ever single day. FareShare is a great part of our work, providing employment and skills as well as a massive difference to the people who receive the food. We are delighted with the support for the Christmas Leftovers Campaign."

Further details about FareShare West Yorkshire are available on this website or at Fare Share West Yorkshire.

Philanthropoly Winners

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 10:05:00 +0000

CREATE was recognised for it’s innovative work with the most vulnerable groups in the city of Leeds at the AGM of Leeds Community Foundation this week.

Overlooking the wealth of the city from the Sky Lounge of the new City Inn, CREATE was recognised for it’s innovative work with rough sleepers and offenders in the city.

“The Community Foundation has two key roles: to act as a philanthropy advisor and as an expert grant maker,” said Sally Anne Greenfield. (CEO Leeds Community Foundation) “Our aim is to be the first port of call for people and companies thinking about donating, investing or distribution money to local causes in Leeds.”

To this end the Community Foundation has launched a philanthropy advisory service to advise donors on where their support can be best used and tailor-make a service for each supporter. Because of its grass roots contacts with community groups, the Foundation has an in-depth knowledge of local needs and where grants will really make a difference. The Foundation is also used as a trusted grant maker by other charities such Comic and Sport Relief and other charitable trusts, local and national government to channel funds to the right local issues.

To mark its Annual Review publication the Foundation is inviting supporters to meet some of the groups which benefited from last year’s grants at the new City Inn. To highlight the way it works it by running a special ‘Secret Millionaire meets Dragons' Den’ event where three different groups pitched to ‘investors’ in a game of ‘Philanthropoly’.

CREATE’s CEO, Sarah Dunwell on receiving the award commented, “we are delighted to be recognised by a funder which not only gives money to a significant number of projects in the city, but really gets to know the needs of those projects, delivering a service to Leeds which is about partnership and not just funding.”

Banking Success

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:42:00 +0000

In its 150^th year Yorkshire Bank is still supporting the Leeds community in the way it did on its first day.

Last night at a glamorous reception the historic Leeds bank honoured those who are working to make an impact on the life and growth of the city where it is still based.

As part of its 150^th Anniversary the bank awarded a number of accolades to organisations who are making a real difference particularly to the bank's core corporate values of creating value and sustainability.

After many years of supporting the work of CREATE, Yorkshire Bank presented an award for their growth and development in community regeneration. Coming shortly after being voted the social enterprise of the year for Business Link, Sarah Dunwell (CEO) said, “we are always pleased to be recognised by such significant local partners and are delighted that Yorkshire Bank are not only an award giver but also a valued customer”.

CREATE won the award for its commitment to using the success of the business model of CREATE to sustain the delivery of 100’s of tons of food to community projects through the Fare Share warehouse it operates in Leeds. (www.fareshare-westyorkshire.org).

CREATE is set to expand it’s work delivering real employment solutions for homeless people into Bradford and Hull, building on the considerable success it has had in Leeds.

Christmas Leftovers

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:44:00 +0000

Central to the heart of Create’s innovative business model is a passionate commitment that it is possible to operate a sustainable business and deliver social good all at the same time.

Nowhere is this more true than in the warehouse that CREATE operates at it’s headquarters in Holbeck to offer training and skills to our staff and apprentices through the delivery of the West Yorkshire Fare Share scheme and this year we plan to work wonders with West Yorkshire's Christmas leftovers.

Ingredients...

4,788 tonnes of vegetables

1,710 tonnes of fruit

273 tonnes of confectionary

2,052 tonnes of bread

1,026 tonnes of meat

273 tonnes of oil

What's on the Menu....

The average household wastes around 6kg of food a week, that's enough to feed an extra person at the dinner table every day...and such food waste increases by a massive 80% during the festive season. Whilst we are wasting all this food there are millions of people in extreme food poverty, and most surprisingly 4 million of them are living here in the UK.

FareShare is a national charity that redistributes good quality donated and surplus food. Here at FareShare West Yorkshire we have already delivered over 100 tonnes of food in our first year, helping provide over 238,000 meals to those in need across the region and reducing CO2 emissions by around 540 tonnes. But, with your help, we could do so much more.

We're asking you to donate the cost of one dinner and it really is value for money...

A quick bite from the deli - £3 will ensure the delivery of food parcels for 6 families in need, providing up to 60% of their weekly food.

Bistro lunch with a glass of wine - £13.74 will power our fridges and freezers for a week, enabling us to redistribute tonnes of fresh food.

Dining out with the Directors - £50 will enable weekly food deliveries to one of our community members of a whole month.

We will be collecting around the city. See the press or find out more at www.createleeds.org/fareshare/christmas

Social Enterprise of the Year

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:25:00 +0000

After two years of work and growth CREATE has been awarded a prestigious regional award at the Annual Social Enterprise Yorkshire and Humberside event, hosted by Business Link.

At the event at Doncaster Race Course John Bird (founder of the Big Issue) praised the growing work of social businesses in transforming situations of exclusion that traditional charities have long engaged with. Against stiff competition across the whole of the northern region CREATE was recognised as the new start Social Enterprise of the Year.

This award comes shortly after the accolade of becoming the Lord Mayor of Leeds Charity of the Year and the Government's Regional Champion in combating homelessness through social enterprise.

Accepting the award on behalf of CREATE, Sarah Dunwell (CEO) said, “we are delighted to be recognised for the work we have begun but even more delighted at the lives we have seen transformed through growing a successful business.”

Create now operate outside catering, cafes, high street retail and online commerce in Leeds and Doncaster and is set to grow its success in the region.

The Lord Mayor of Leeds, Coun Judith Elliot, commented “I am delighted this innovative Leeds company is recognised as the frontrunner in the region”

New Faces

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 11:53:00 +0000

We are delighted to introduce our new chef manager Tom Bootland.

Tom comes to CREATE with a wealth of experience of outside catering to corporate customers as well as having worked with premium clients like the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire at Chatsworth House. Tom’s experience is brought to bear on the unique social business model of CREATE.

Tom was delighted to lead his own hotel and restaurant in the Yorkshire Dales to Michelin Star status and to see Devonshire Hall in Skipton build its reputation as a premium hotel and restaurant destination. Tom will be leading our expanding team to offer you the highest standards of customer service and quality.

We want to thank all our customers for supporting CREATE over the last couple of years and wish you well as we seek to continue to offer you the best in product quality and customer service, with that unique feeling of having changed peoples lives by using CREATE services.