As the warmer weather and lighter evenings finally arrives, all of us at CEPL12 continue to be busy
beavering away.
Our Community Fridge volunteers are particularly enjoying the sunshine as they hold their fridge
outdoors on a Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday and are often cold and wet!. We continue to
have a steady stream of customers who benefit from food that would otherwise have gone into
landfill, last month we served 755 people, this included 45 to our mobile fridge.
We also use the food collected by our volunteer drivers to cook wholesome meals in our
Community Kitchen, last month we served 543 customers from around the PL12 community. We
are delighted that our collections from Waitrose, which were halted earlier this year, have now
resumed bringing much needed additional foodstuffs. Thanks to our amazing team of volunteers
we have home baked cakes available every day, this week you could tuck into boiled fruit cake (
with grapefruit due to the huge tin of grapefruit we had donated) and chocolate and courgette
cake. We try not to buy any extra ingredients and so our volunteers have become adept at
creating tasty treats from whatever we are given. Why don’t you pop in and try whatever we
have on offer?
The number of activities we offer continue to grow, on a regular basis we have a drop in café for
those living and affected by dementia, chatter and natter run by Mandy our social prescriber,
Your Voice ( a mental health group for ladies), Man Down ( a mental health group for men), and
a newly formed, but rapidly growing, stroke group. All of these groups are sure of a warm
welcome and home-made refreshments. Please contact us if you would like any more
information.
We have also been delighted to host our local Rotary group who we are hoping will continue to
use our venue on a regular basis.
Jos, our fabulous volunteer chef who has the most amazing CV including cooking for royalty, is
now leading cooking demonstrations on a regular basis, last month he taught us how to cook
the perfect poached egg. The next demonstration is on, June 5th, when he will let us into the
secret of making soups and sandwiches – a staple pairing on brunch menus. He will help you to
make the ultimate croque monsieur toasted sandwich and how to make quick and easy
Chinese soups.
Our latest play from Scrip in Hand Theatre: ‘In Other words’ is on Monday 22nd May. This marks the
CND protest held on 24th May 1983 in which a group of ladies held hands from end to end on the
Tamar Bridge.
We are still working in conjunction with the Tamar Bridge Visitors Centre to promote our famous bridges, on 31st July we are hosting a Tamar Bridge Tea event for a group of interested people taking part in a tour of the bridge. If you are interested to know more place contact the Visitor’s Centre to book a place as they are limited and likely to be booked up fast.
Our Community Shop and Hub at No 4 Fore Street has been quiet over the last few months, inevitably the cost of living crisis will have an impact on those goods seen as luxury items rather than essentials. To this end, we have been sourcing lower priced and Saltash themed goods to attract a wider customer base. We have some wonderful products from over 25 local traders that make ideal gifts and souvenirs, please pop in to see what we have on offer. Our Shop Director, Cathy Jane, has made the decision to step down as Shop Director, this is because she has taken on many additional responsibilities as our Community Liaison Director, we are delighted that she is going to continue in this capacity. Our Lead Volunteers have stepped up admirably and are making a great job of making sure no 4 continues to thrive.
Last month we celebrated the ten year anniversary of opening No 4, two of our volunteers Lynda Burden and Sue Bishop have been volunteering with us since the very start, we marked this amazing achievement with flowers (and a cup of tea!) Things have changed considerably over the years, but the dedication of our volunteer team remains as strong as ever.
Along with the rest of Saltash, we celebrated the May Fair and Coronation with bunting, flags and a proper pasty lunch. As always we were happy to supply the power to the speaker system for the benefit of the crowds that enjoyed the celebrations together.
Our Community Transport continues to provide community hires and trips to a growing number of passengers. As well as driving for both our volunteer drivers also support other enterprises by making regular food collections and transporting people to our Dementia Café at Ashtorre every Thursday.
Earlier this month was Dementia Action Week working with a range of organisations across the country to raise awareness of the disease, including our own DV group. 33 of our regular attendees took part in the launch event at the library. Led by Teresa, our singing group performed a number of songs, poems were also read. It was a brilliant event and a great showcase for how much fun those affected by dementia can have.
We were delighted to welcome Peter Wilson to our Board of Directors last month, he has taken up the much needed role of Health and Safety Director. All our Directors work tirelessly behind the scenes to make sure that we are compliant and viable, this is a time consuming job and often overlooked. Our Ops Manager, Al Marks does a sterling job supporting us behind the scenes.
We are a voluntary organisation and, as such, do not charge for our activities, rather we are dependent on donations and grant funding in order to survive. We are constantly looking for new ways to generate funding and so are especially thrilled that the Mayor has chosen us as one of his supported organisations this year, we thank him for his recognition and support.
Hopefully, this report gives you a flavour of our little organisation, and the many activities we organise to enhance the lives of those whom live, work or visit in the PL12 community. We are
proud of all we do, but always looking for ways to improve and extend our services. If you feel you have something to offer and would like to give back to your town, please pop in for a chat ( and maybe a piece of cake!)
Thank you for taking the time to read this, I would welcome your thoughts and comments about how interesting you find this overview.
For more information about any of our activities please check out our Facebook and Instagram pages, our website or pop into No 4 or 8 to find out more
'Together we can, together we do'
War-barth ‘gan gallos War-barth ‘gan gwul
Jo Grail Chair
CEPL12
Comentarios