Manchester Foundation Trust Charity volunteers packed £1.5 million of donated goods into over 25,000 wellbeing packs
26th November 2020
Submitted by Emma Wright, Manchester Foundation Trust Charity
During the height of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, the Charity enlisted the help of 39 volunteers who helped us to pack more than £1.5 mllion-worth of donated goods into over 25,000 wellbeing packs to give out to hardworking NHS staff across Manchester and Trafford.
Manchester Foundation Trust Charity worked with numerous corporate supporters, including the likes of Ralph Lauren, The Hut Group, Kellogg’s, Manchester United, JD Sports, N Brown Group, Unilever and PZ Cussons plus countless more household-name brands.
In total 39 volunteers from the Trust, ranging from administration staff to support staff and medical workers, gave up their time to work in our make-shift production hub. Their roles included unloading lorries, moving pallets, recycling packaging materials, organising types of products into sections, packing wellbeing packs and sorting them into cages ready for them to be distributed throughout the Trust.
These wellbeing packs consisted of vital items to keep NHS staff going, such as energy drinks, cereal bars, drinks and non-perishable foods items as well as personal hygiene and self-care products such as toothpaste, body wash, deodorant and sleepwear. These items were particularly useful for staff who were self-isolating in hotels, away from their family members, in order to keep their loved-ones safe.
This was a completely new challenge for the Charity and certainly one we couldn’t have completed without the support of our volunteers. We found the entire volunteer team to be reliable and they took a real hands-on approach to the tasks in hand; often switching roles from day to day to suit the needs of the Charity’s “wellbeing hub” on any given day.
As well as helping us to assemble and distribute the wellbeing packs, they also helped us to distribute self-care products to celebrate Year of the Nurse, Easter Eggs, Eid gift boxes to celebrate those religious holidays and even flowers donated by the President of Kenya to help bring a smile at the end of a long shift. They also helped us prepare “drinks packages” – collections of tea, coffee, long-life milk and cereals that were distributed to ward staff rooms (rather than to individuals).
Many of the volunteers would commit a few hours before or after a shift at one of our hospitals. There really was a strong emphasis on being a team and working together to make a bad situation that little bit better. There was lots of heavy lifting and manual labour involved in supporting the wellbeing hub but not a single volunteer made a complaint about this; even when they were performing these tasks before or after their own shifts. The idea of the wellbeing packs was to provide a lift to those who were working extremely hard during unprecedented times and we know we were able to achieve that goal.
Thanks to the volunteer support, Manchester Foundation Trust Charity was able to distribute:
• 25,000 wellbeing packs to individual staff members
• 226 drinks packages for wards or departments
• 89,460 individual treats including flowers, loaves of bread and hand creams
• 3,540 gifts to nurses to celebrate Year of the Nurse
• 3,000 Iftar boxes for Ramadan
We know they made a difference to the 25,000 staff that were working at the Trust during the Covid-19 response and many of them took the time to write us thank you emails or send cards.
“I received one of your 'goodie bags' earlier in the week in MRI and I just wanted to say thank you for organising it! I know it gave the team a real boost and a really positive talking point. I thought you would like to know your hard work was paying off.”
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