a selection of the good press we’ve received
2008 – Another £1million for Green Energy!
The Co-operative announces another £1million investment in its Green Energy for Schools programme, asking members to nominate their local schools to benefit from the programme. Click here to find out more
2008 – From Farm to Fork
The Co-operative’s From Farm to Fork celebrates 10,000 children having visited one of our farms. The project now runs across eight sites from Essex to Perthshire and including a distribution centre in Alfreton. Click here to find out more
2007 – StreetGames Young Volunteers
More than 3,000 young people across England are set to benefit from The Co-operative StreetGames Young Volunteers by the time of the 2012 Olympics. The programme enables young people from disadvantaged communities to play an active role in their communities by volunteering to coach other children in sports such as football and kwik cricket.
Click here to find out more
2007 – Climate Pledge
In partnership with The Co-operative Bank, staff and members get on board with an climate pledge to reduce their impact on the their environment.
2007 – Green Energy for Schools
The Co-operative announces an investment of £1million to be match funded by Government, to enable 100 schools to benefit from the installation of photovoltaic (PV) panels on the school roof. Schools not only benefit from the free green energy created but also create educational programmes around the panel to teaching pupils about renewable energy and the dangers of climate change. Click here to find out more
2007 – Food Ethical Policy
The Co-operative launches another UK first – a member led ethical policy for its food retailing business. Over 100,000 co-operative members took the opportunity to contribute to the development of our Policy. Click here to find out more
2007 – The Children’s Society – Charity of the Year
Yet another record is set when The Co-operative raises £2million for the Children’s Society and partner charities in their biggest ever fundraising campaign and helps to improve the childhoods of 6,000 disadvantaged children across the UK. Click here to find out more
2006 – Community Challenge
In 2006, The Co-operative launched a challenge to customers and members to nominate community projects that could benefit from a team of employee and member volunteers. 40 community groups across the UK were helped by 346 of our volunteers donating over 3,250 hours of time to completing tasks such as building a school garden for outdoor lessons in Middlewich; painting a community centre in West Belfast; and painting a Senior citizens centre in Wales.
2005 – Mobile phone recycling
Customers are now able to recycle their old mobile phones whilst raising money for Oxfam thanks to recycling bags being made available in our food stores. In 2007 we made the recycling bags available in our Travel, Bank and Pharmacy branches too. Since its inception the scheme has raised £270,000 for Oxfam.
2005 – Shelter – Charity of the Year
Staff and members set a record by raising £1million for the housing charity, Shelter, whilst also raising awareness of the 1,000,000 children in the UK living in bad housing and calling on the Government to take action. Thousands of supporters including some prominent celebrities sat in the red chair and signed the pledge ‘One million children living in bad housing – I’m not standing for it!’
2005 – From Farm to Fork
The Co-operative launches its From farm to Fork programme which invites primary school children onto our farms to find out where their food comes from. Children learn how to identify crops and cook healthy meals with the crops they have seen growing.
Click here to find out more
2004 – Prisoners’ Art Exhibition
Prisons from across the North West are invited to submit artwork including poetry, oil on canvas and watercolours, to The Co-operative Prisoner Art Exhibition at The Co-operative’s headquarters in Manchester. The exhibition aimed to inspire budding artists to develop their talent and self-esteem whilst raising money for the charity Victim Support and rehabilitation programmes.
2003 – Association of Children’s Hospices – Charity of the Year
Co-op members and staff use their vote and chose to raise money for the Association of Children's Hospices during the summer period of 2003.
2002 - Oxfam
The Co-operative raises over £60,000 for African water projects and is instrumental in building awareness of Oxfam's Make Trade Fair campaign by major instore and direct mail activity.
2002 - Fight the Freeze
The Co-operative supports Age Concern's campaign to raise money to help the elderly keep warm in winter. Co-operative staff and customers donate £100,000 of foreign currency soon to become redundant as the Euro is launched.
2001 – Marie Curie – Charity of the Year
The Co-operative works tirelessly to supports is charity partnership in 2001 and raises over £680,000 for Marie Curie Cancer Care. This campaign is a great success and a finalist in the Business in the Community Awards, receiving a BITC Big Tick endorsement.
2001 – Get Cooking Get Shopping
'Get Cooking, Get Shopping' is a resource pack for developing community based cooking and shopping skills. The scheme was originally developed and run in Scotland in the 1990's by The Co-operative, the Scottish Federation of Community Food Initiatives (SFCFI), Greater Glasgow Health Board, the Scottish Community Diet Project (SCDP), and Sustain; the alliance for better food and farming.
1999 – NSPCC – Charity of the Year
Our charitable support is focused on a major bi-annual campaign programme. In 1999 a combination of staff fund raising and customer and supplier donations raised £440,000 for the NSPCC.
1999 – Social Exclusion
The Co-operative initiates a huge drive to tackle the problem of 'retail deserts' in the UK's poorest and most isolated areas. The Co-operative aims to persuade the government to lift political barriers in the way of successful self-help co-ops; whilst for its part it will pledge to tackle the practical barriers by committing management expertise and financial support to encourage the development of co-operative food projects across the UK. This move is outlined in the Co-operative's 'Breaking the Barriers' report, and is triggered by independent research amongst self-help food initiatives and community food co-operatives in Scotland, where poor diet can mean people live 10 years less than the UK average.
1998 – Community Nutrition
Working in partnership with Greater Glasgow Health Board, the Co-operative Group supports the UK's first Retail based Community Nutritionist, operating at a local level in the Glasgow Barrachnie and Kingco communities. This was in response to the recommendations of the Scottish Diet Report and Scottish Diet Action plan where it was considered that practical problem solving was necessary at local and community level to achieve sustained and progressive changes in diet.
1997 – Community Fund
Twice a year, some three million of our shopper-members are paid a share of our profits. Every member has the option of donating some of their share to The Co-operative Membership Community Fund, a scheme that awards funding to a variety of groups that are carrying out projects for the benefit of local communities.
Since 1997, The Co-operative Membership Community Fund has donated more than £7million to thousands of community groups across the UK.