Nerys has played a pivotal role in the development and growth of the CARE Project, which provides vital food support and community care to individuals and families across the Caerphilly Basin. During her time in post, she has not only led the project with dedication and compassion, but has also gone above and beyond spearheading food drives, organising raffles and community fêtes, attending networking events, and building strong relationships that have significantly strengthened the reach and impact of the charity’s work.

Her leadership has helped ensure that hundreds of people have been supported with dignity and care during times of need.

Speaking about her decision, Nerys said:

“I am so very grateful to all of you for your prayers, well wishes and friendship during my absence as well as your dedication in stepping up to help keep things going.

It is with great sadness that I now let you know that I won’t be resuming my role as the CARE Project Lead. Although my health is now very much improved, I need to continue to focus on my wellbeing in future.

It has been a real joy to get to know and work alongside each of you and I will cherish my time with you all. I want to thank everyone for the support you’ve given to Angharad, Adam and Ffion while I’ve been recovering and I have no doubt you will extend this kindness and welcome to Helen, my successor.

I will temporarily be returning to help with the busy Easter season and to transition things so I very much hope to see you all in person during this period.”

Rev. Dean Aaron Roberts, Chief Executive Officer of The Parish Trust, said:

“Nerys has been an extraordinary member of our team and has shaped the CARE Project into what it is today. Her leadership, compassion, and tireless commitment to serving others have made a lasting impact not only on the project, but on our entire organisation and the community we serve.

We are deeply grateful for everything she has given, often going far beyond what was required, and we are genuinely saddened to see her step back from this role. While we will miss her greatly, we fully support her decision to prioritise her wellbeing and wish her every blessing for the future.”

The Parish Trust is pleased to confirm that Helen Burns will be stepping into the role of CARE Project Lead. A transition and handover period will take place over the coming weeks, with Nerys returning temporarily to support the team through the busy Easter period.

Helen said:

“I am really excited to be joining such an amazing, vibrant project delivering vital support to the community. I am looking forward to meeting you all as I learn the ropes of the role and continue Nerys’ great work with the CARE project.”

The Parish Trust extends its thanks to Nerys for her outstanding contribution and looks forward to continuing the work of the CARE Project under Helen’s leadership. We wish Nerys every blessing in whatever comes next for her.

Emma Riedel is our new CARE Project Assistant and will be assisting The Parish Trust to become increasingly robust and authoritative in the area of food poverty and its alleviation. Speaking of the appointment, Rev. Dean Aaron Roberts, CEO, said,

This is an exciting development for the charity, flowing from an exciting and close partnership that we are privileged to enjoy with Caerphilly Council, in particular the Caerphilly Cares Team. We’re very fortunate to have Emma joining us who brings significant skills and enthusiasm, and has already fitted well into the staff team here at The Parish Trust. Emma and the role she will play in the work of the charity will make us more robust as an organisation, and, from a strategic point of view, lay some solid foundations for the charity’s continued growth and its deepening of relationships with public and private sector institutions.

Emma will be assisting Luke Coleman, our CARE Project Lead, for part of her time, whilst being an advocate and link between The Parish Trust and Caerphilly Cares, attending training and meetings which look at tackling the challenges around food and food poverty in the county. She will play an active part in the Caerphilly Cares Food Network, a consortium of organisations across the area who will meet to share good practice, plan initiatives related to food poverty, and have a voice in developing and shaping local policy.

1. It gives us accountability

Accountability is so important. Having a big collection of referral partners is key to the success of the CARE Project, as it means we know that our service users are known by others and that their situation is also known to the referrer, who act as a reference for us.

It also makes us accountable to grant funders and the general public so that they know that our statistics are not self-generated or falsified. This genuine data is then fed into our annual accounts which get sent to the Charity Commission each year.

2. It helps our service users

Having a referral system in place helps us to help our service users with other needs that they may have, such as being able to signpost them to additional support, and discovering their story as time goes on so that we can best meet their needs. This could include offering money management courses, bereavement support, or simply a chat on the phone to see what challenges someone may be facing. We often find trends that The Parish Trust is in a good position to meet, such as providing services to children and young people at a nominal fee, or even free of charge, such as Tommy’s Tots.

3. It helps us to plan, manage, and campaign

If we know how many referred service users we have at any one time, we can gauge what the demand on our food stocks will be within a three month period. This helps us to plan our campaigns, prioritising donations of food, and organising collections from suppliers. Of course, there are times where this gets tricker, such as in the recent rise in household bills which has meant more referrals in a short space of time. However, as The Parish Trust CARE Project is a member of the Independent Food Aid Network, we can feed our data to this alliance which will in turn inform the Government about poverty and how we can work to reduce it.

4. It helps to stop people abusing the system

Having a referral means that someone has gone through a process to become known. Whilst we want to be a trusting organisation, we also need to safeguard the service for those who genuinely need our help. It costs a significant amount of money, time, and resources to run the CARE Project, and we cannot afford to waste our resources, or be complicit in misdirecting them to those who don’t really need our help. Our referral system helps us to crack down on people who may abuse and take advantage of the provisions we offer. Whilst this is a very small minority of people, it is still a genuine concern of the General Public that their donations may go to people who are manipulating the system.

5. It makes tackling food poverty more efficient

Having a referral system helps us to manage and distribute food fairly. Food banks which don’t have an accountability structure or referral system in place cannot be sure that their service users aren’t “shopping around” other food banks to get even more food than others. This makes things very inefficient and unfair.

We hope this informative post has helped you to understand why we use referrals here at The Parish Trust! We want to be transparent in everything we do here, and our website & blog serve to be as helpful and informative as possible.

Having said all this, The Parish Trust is in great need of assistance if we are to continue delivering our services which cover an area of over 50,000 people. Could you spare an hour or two each week and volunteer with us? Or, if that’s not possible, could you spare just £5 a month and join our Feed a Fiver campaign? Feed a Fiver has the ambitious aim of getting 2,500 people (5% of our service area) to donate £5 a month to our work so that we can safeguard the provision and grow for the future. We’d really be grateful if you could join the 5%. Once again, thank you for your continued support!

Readers will be aware that the cost of living is rising sharply, and as a result, the demand and pressure placed on the CARE Project to help those who are struggling financially has risen to new highs. Sadly, our number of active volunteers within the CARE Project has decreased since COVID-19 restrictions have lifted.

A mix of high demand, lack of food on our shelves, and no volunteer delivery drivers mean that on Friday 11th March, we had to close the food bank for the week.

We feel awful that it got to that point, but circumstances forced us to make this decision. However it doesn’t have to be like this.

We are calling on everyone who is able to help us by donating food – dropping it off at our HQ, donating monetary donations online which will help us significantly in our work, or donating time by volunteering with us.

We have reached a critical point, and we now need the public to support us so that we can support those who need help at this time. The problems of poverty have not disappeared and all our findings suggest that poverty is on the increase in our area.

Please help. We can’t do our work without you.

Siân’s role has been to co-ordinate the sourcing of food for The Parish Trust in order that the charity is able to run its projects. She has helped to co-ordinate a team of volunteers whilst liaising with individuals, local businesses and some of the UK’s most well known national brands which has helped The Parish Trust to distribute food to those in need in the community.

From one supplier alone, Siân and her team of volunteers have secured 16,536 meals of food between 23rd March 2020 and the beginning of July 2021, which equates to 6945.25 Kgs. Additionally, this food which would have otherwise been sent to landfill has saved the planet of 22042.40 Kgs of CO2 emissions.

Speaking of Siân’s departure, Rev. Dean Aaron Roberts, the Chair of Trustees, said:

We are very sad to see Siân leaving The Parish Trust for pastures new I can’t express how thankful I am for Siân’s passion, hard work, and perseverance. She has impacted the charity in more ways than she will ever know, nor I will ever be able to fully realise. We owe a debt of gratitude to her. On behalf of the Board of Trustees, the staff, and volunteers, I wish Siân all the best in this new chapter of her life, and I will be praying for her and for all that’s to come as she embarks on her university journey.

Due to funding limitations, The Parish Trust is not in a position to recruit a new Food Procurement Officer at the present time. Therefore, Siân’s role is now being absorbed by current staff until such time as funding becomes available again.

In the meantime, The Parish Trust continues to receive a significant number of requests for help, and our Food Hub is as busy as ever, with the economic and social effects of the COVID-19 pandemic starting to manifest in job insecurity, unemployment, and mental health challenges. We are in desperate need of all ambient foods, and monetary donations to continue meeting the demand that we are receiving. If you are in a position to donate money to us, you can do so online. Ambient / Dry Food donations can be brought to The Parish Trust during office hours (Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm) We do not accept chilled or frozen food donations from the General Public.

If you need help with food and non-food essential item provision, please do not hesitate to request help from us, and if you need medium to long term help, we work with over 50 partners who will be happy to refer you to sustained support from The Parish Trust.

A few days prior, without really thinking about it, and knowing that the following months were going to be tough, I went on Facebook and broadcast a live video. As people tuned in to me speaking from my study at home, I made a promise that “we” would help people by providing food, a prescription collection service, and a listening ear.

At that point, there was no food, no people to help, and little direction as to what would be allowed in the strange world that we were about to be a part of. By human standards, it was foolish to go onto a public platform and say these things with out a watertight plan of action. I had no plan, but it’s my personal belief that God did.

One year on, I can only conclude that what I have experienced and have been a part of has been nothing short of a miracle. The food did come in, the people turned up to volunteer, and we overcame every obstacle that challenged us. Between 23rd March 2020 and 31st December 2020, we helped 9222 people.

We had people overwhelmed with gratitude because of how our team had cared for them and checked on them. We offered consolation as heart-wrenching conversations were shared over the telephone. We experienced the tears of joy falling from the faces of children whose mummy and daddy couldn’t afford for them to buy sweets. We heard stories of other children paying the kindness they received from our volunteers forward by raising their own funds to treat other children in their street with chocolate at Easter. We stood alongside those who mourned the loss of their career, and even their loved ones. We’re still here today, offering faith, hope, and love to anyone who is thirsty for it.

I never thought that so many people would be impacted by what has become known as The CARE Project.

It wasn’t my individual effort that made the CARE Project what it is today. Over 350 people have volunteered throughout the CARE Project’s first year, and countless others have donated money and food to assist us in providing essential services and support to those who find themselves in need. I cannot thank the volunteers enough for the determination and grit that they show day in, day out, at all hours, to ensure the CARE Project continues to serve the community. Indeed, many of them have been recognised for the incredible commitment they have shown. At one point, one third of our volunteers were under 30 years of age.

We were also blessed with the support of numerous grant funders who believed in us and gave us the vital funds that we needed to make a difference, and we have been followed by the media who have sought to help us get our aid to where it’s needed.

In the summer of 2020, the First Minister of Wales visited, and the Lord Lieutenant wrote to us to pass on the thanks of Her Majesty the Queen.

It’s been a rollercoaster journey.

As I look at where we are now, and as I dare to look at the future, I can only conclude that The CARE Project will be here to stay. Poverty in all its forms is rife in our nation. A lot of it is not the result of COVID-19. Poverty has always been a reality for many, but the last 12 months have made poverty both more visible, and more acute. There’s a lot of work to be done.

Once, Jesus reminded his followers of the reality that the poor would always be among them. He quoted a verse from the book of Deuteronomy in the Old Testament which says, “Give generously to the poor, not grudgingly, for the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do. There will always be some in the land who are poor. That is why I am commanding you to share freely with the poor…” (Deuteronomy 15:10-11)

These words, written thousands of years ago, still ring true and relevant today, and will continue to be so in the future. Therefore, we, as The Parish Trust, will continue our effort to care for the poor, recognising that poverty comes in a multitude of forms.

We exist for the benefit of everyone, no matter what their religious affiliations may be (or otherwise). Yet, as an organisation, it is our Christian foundations that compel us to act to bring healing and wholeness to this beautiful but broken world. We are glad that so many share this wider vision with us.

May God bless The Parish Trust as we seek to grow and develop over the next year, and may God bless and make his presence known to you in the season that lies ahead.

Rev. Dean Aaron Roberts | CHAIR OF TRUSTEES

A number of awards were given to both the charity as an organisation and to individuals involved with the work of The Parish Trust, which has focussed its energy on the running of the CARE Project. The CARE Project helped 9222 people with food parcels, prescription collections, and emotional/pastoral care to those in need over the course of 2020.

Awards were also given to other individuals and organisations in the BTM Community Council constituency who had demonstrated incredible acts of kindness through 2020, many of whom supported the CARE Project in addition to the other work they achieved. News about the awards have spread to media outlets including the Caerphilly Observer who have picked up on the good news stories coming out of the area.

The Parish Trust received a Certificate of Appreciation and the Chair’s Trophy for the work of the CARE Project throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The CARE Project has required a significant amount of work to be undertaken, and has needed the help of over 350 volunteers since its inception. The volunteers at The CARE Project are all dedicated and extremely hard-working, but four volunteers in particular received awards of recognition, which they truly deserve.

Rhys Griffiths and Karen Watson joined the CARE Project as a mother-and-son team. Karen has not only helped at the food hub, she has also delivered food parcels and has collected prescriptions. She often arrives early for her shifts, and invariably stays behind after everyone else to ensure the building is clean and locked up safely.

Throughout lockdown, Rhys has given up the majority of his free time to volunteer. Rhys packs food parcels and ensures the building is kept in tip-top condition. Throughout all this time, Rhys has volunteered alongside studying for his A-Levels. He has been instrumental in welcoming new volunteers and training them up to do the various roles required for the project to run smoothly

Karen John is a call handler for The CARE Project and has worked remotely from home throughout her volunteering. Karen’s help is highly appreciated and volunteers weekly, on a Monday.

Karen’s volunteering role encompasses taking calls from the service users who are able to request a food parcel or prescription over the phone. Karen is also able to talk to service users about their concerns and worries, ensuring that they feel supported and able to call on the Parish Trust for friendship. Many of the service users recognise Karen and look forward to speaking to her, often requesting her in particular due to her friendliness.

Speaking about her award, she said,

“It has been a very rewarding experience working with the other team members of the CARE Project. The thanks and feedback from the people we help and staff makes it all worthwhile. The recognition of my small contribution to this fab and friendly team is much appreciated. Thank you.“

Darren Shaughnessy is a delivery driver for the CARE Project. He is extremely motivated and has delivered food parcels in the CARE Project Van in all weather conditions, and over special holidays such as Christmas.

Rev. Dean Aaron Roberts, the Chair of Trustees of The Parish Trust, set up The CARE Project at the very beginning of the initial lockdown in March 2020. For this endeavour, he was awarded the Chair’s award of Excellence and Achievement.

Speaking about his award he said,

“It has been a humbling experience to have the privilege of leading The Parish Trust and forming the CARE Project. I feel honoured to receive the Chair’s Award for 2020, but want to put on record that the success of the CARE Project has been the result of the sacrificial efforts of the hundreds of volunteers who have given of their time, their talents and their money for the sake of others. I also have an amazing team of staff who work tirelessly alongside me to support me and my role as the Chair of Trustees. I accept this award recognising that it represents the work of countless others, and thank those who nominated me, and the BTM Community Council for giving such recognition to The Parish Trust.

As a Christian, my faith has been the unshakeable bedrock through what has been a bleak and difficult time for our communities. My faith in Jesus and his teachings challenged me to do something to practically support those who have been struggling the most throughout the Pandemic, because I believe that my faith should be demonstrated in practical ways.

I’m forever grateful for the opportunities I have been given, and I’m expectant that The Parish Trust will grow from strength to strength in the future, always being on hand to meet a challenge with courage, and to provide faith, hope, and love to all those we come into contact with.”

Over and above the support the CARE Project has been to thousands of households in the area, The Parish Trust has been able to offer employment, an Apprenticeship Programme, and the opportunity for community cohesion in the face of global crisis.

The work of the CARE Project will continue as a staple outreach of the charity, and new projects are currently being developed that focus on bringing the community closer together, relieving loneliness, addressing mental health challenges and helping to equip, teach and train people of all ages new life skills as society looks beyond COVID-19 and life after the pandemic.

The First Minister wanted to personally thank the army of volunteers that have helped the charity to provide food parcels, prescription delivery, and pastoral care to over 4,000 people since it was founded by Rev. Dean Aaron Roberts, the Chair of Trustees of the BMMR Parish Trust, and the Rector and Vicar of the parishes of Bedwas, Machen, Michaelston-y-Fedw and Rudry.

The First Minister arrived at 11 o’clock in the morning and was introduced to a selection of volunteers who have been giving their time and commitment in various ways through the different jobs that need doing in order to run the CARE Project, from call handling to delivering food.

After being introduced to the volunteers, the First Minister was shown how a food parcel is made up, and how it is tailored to the service users. The First Minister was impressed at the quantity of food that goes into a single food parcel. The First Minister spent an hour visiting the CARE Project, and was thanked by the Reverend Dean Aaron Roberts for coming, who presented him with a hamper of cheese as a thank you gift. The visit concluded with a session of interviews with news outlets and other media outside St. Thomas’ Church.

Speaking of the CARE Project, First Minister Mark Drakeford said:

Though the coronavirus pandemic has been a difficult time for us all, our volunteers in Wales have shown themselves to be a light in the dark.

Coming here today and meeting Reverend Dean and the team of volunteers has been a privilege. The CARE project is an impressive endeavour made up of selfless people who responded promptly and with warm hearts, despite trying circumstances.

I want to thank everyone at CARE and all of the volunteers across Wales for the invaluable work and support you have provided in the emergency response to coronavirus.

The Reverend Dean Aaron Roberts said:

We are delighted that the First Minister has visited us at the BMMR Parish Trust CARE Project. This visit has been a huge morale boost for our entire 100 volunteer strong workforce, who are of all ages, and have been providing practical assistance to an area covering around 15,000 people since March.

This has been a great encouragement that the difference our volunteers are making is being recognised and supported by the Government both locally and nationally. We have received incredible support from the local area with donations of money and food, but also of time and energy to ensure people are looked after.

We have also been greatly encouraged by a grant from the Welsh Government and other charitable organisations who saw our work as being vital towards mitigating both the direct and indirect consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.

Our charity will now prioritise looking at building resilience in our communities and continuing to offer practical assistance as we adjust our lives to the new normality we are about to discover as the nation seeks to recover from lockdown.

Also in attendance were local dignitaries from the Caerphilly County Borough Council, as well as Wayne David MP and Hefin David, Member of the Senedd.

ENDS.

To get help, please call our telephone line on 02921 880 212 option 0, or go to https://bmmr.church/care

To volunteer with the CARE Project, please go to https://bmmr.church/care and follow the on screen instructions.

Images by Julie Nobes.

1336 people were helped with either a Food Parcel, Prescription, Click & Collect Delivery or Pastoral Care during the month of May, compared with 1283 people in April, marking a 4.13% rise.

The CARE Project saw a decrease in requests for Prescriptions and Click & Collect Delivery services, but increases in requests for Food Parcels and Pastoral Care. Food Parcel Requests were up by 18.84% whilst requests for Pastoral Care were up by 50%.

Commenting on the statistics, the Reverend Dean Aaron Roberts, Chair of Trustees of the BMMR Parish Trust said,

“These statistics demonstrate that the CARE Project will need to be a permanent fixture in our community, and not just an emergency response project for COVID-19. It is concerning that we have seen an increase in demand. We are also anxious about how we can help these people because whilst level of need is going up, there has been a decrease in food supply availability and number of donations and volunteers.

“It may be that the general public perceive the level of need to be diminishing due to lockdown restrictions being lifted gradually, and so do not feel that the CARE Project needs as much food or finances. Equally, volunteer numbers are reducing slightly as employers are calling people back to work. Food sources are not as readily available as shops are opening for longer and so they are reluctant for us to pick up food that needs to be re-distributed until very late in the evening.”

The CARE Project will continue to offer practical help to those in genuine need in the community during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

If you able to volunteer, you can sign up at https://bmmr.church/care

If you are able to donate food, you drop it off at St. Thomas’ Church, Heol-yr-Ysgol, Trethomas, Caerphilly CF83 8FL Monday-Friday between 9am-3pm.

If you are able to donate money, you can do so at https://bmmr.church/donate or text CORONAVIRUS and your amount to 70085.

Infographic:

On behalf of the Board of Trustees and the Project Senior Leadership Team, I am delighted to announce that the CARE Project has received a very kind and generous grant of £43,000 from the Wales Council for Voluntary Action (WCVA) and the Welsh Government.

This is the first high-value grant we have been awarded, and to receive it from organisations working at the highest levels of the Charitable Sector and the Government has confirmed to us that we are acting in the best interests of our communities at this time. We feel honoured to be trusted with this amount of money so that we can make a positive impact in our locality.

Since the 23rd of March, the CARE Project has been set up by the Bedwas, Machen, Michaelston-y-Fedw & Rudry Parish Trust to provide emergency assistance to those in need in the local area due to the Coronavirus Pandemic.

The work of the CARE Project has been carried out by a committed team of over 100 volunteers who have been providing food parcels, prescription deliveries, Click & Collect shopping deliveries, and pastoral care. 

The grant will help secure operations for the next six months, and will be used to pay for vital infrastructure such as telephone lines, IT services and the salaries of an administrator and operations manager, who will ensure the smooth and efficient running of the CARE Project.

The CARE Project started on Monday 23rd March 2020, and has been in operation for only one month at the time of publication. Yet, during this short time, we have taken over 3000 telephone calls, and have helped over 700 adults and 400 children. 

Now, with financial support from the WCVA and the Welsh Government, we are on the way to ensuring that the vital assistance we provide will be maintained.

As a Board of Trustees and Project Senior Leadership Team, we cannot thank our communities enough for their displays of love, encouragement and support. In great numbers, our members of the public have joined forces with the local Church in the area, offering their time and energy to volunteer with us. Many others have sacrificially given their money and food donations to us for the sake and benefit of others. 

It is fantastic to see communities coming together in this great time of need so that people are looked after and cared for. 

Whilst the grant is very welcome news to us, there is still an incredible amount of work to be done. Our eyes have been opened to a significant level of poverty in our area, whether that be financial, physical, or emotional/mental poverty. A good deal of this poverty is hidden and undisclosed. 

In addition to this, the future of our nation looks uncertain. We anticipate that genuine need will still be present after our six months of funding. It will still be present post-lockdown, and even post COVID-19. 

It wouldn’t feel right if we shut down the CARE Project once the Coronavirus Pandemic was over. Doing so would leave a large number of people to struggle with either very little support, or none at all.

Therefore, we wish to make an appeal to the general public for continued donations of time, food, and money. We will continue to do all that we can to be a practical and pastoral help to our area, and we will continue to seek out grant funding. However, we still need your support too. 

Together, we can ensure not only the survival of the CARE Project throughout the Coronavirus Pandemic, but also its permanent presence as a vital support line to those who need it for many years to come. 

Rev. Dean Aaron Roberts
Rector & Vicar of Bedwas, Machen, Michaelston-y-Fedw & Rudry
Chair of Trustees of the BMMR Parish Trust
CARE Project Lead

ENDS.