During the first lockdown in March 23rd 2020, Danny Barnes our CEO, decided to quit his job and dedicate his time to helping those in need. Shop and Donate was hence created to fulfil this dream. Shop and Donate is a social supermarket where the customer’s contribution goes towards supporting food banks, key workers and helping vulnerable residents affected by COVID-19. This marked the unofficial start of Shop And Donate in April 2020.
The main focus of Shop And Donate has been helping the wider community and areas of the UK through Covid-19. Danny Barnes was forward-thinking about the impacts of this pandemic and strived to build an innovative, economically and environmentally sustainable community-based service to help those in need, regardless of background. This is done, via food packages, telephone befriending and hot meal deliveries. So far we have received an overwhelming amount of positive feedback on our services which has urged us to continue our work and aspire to be the No. 1 Community Shop.
In the long-term we want to make our services as accessible as possible to everyone and anyone. In addition to this, we aspire to work more cohesively with both the community and local authorities to be able to run all our services fluidly and reach a larger audience of vulnerable people.
A key vision of ours is to be able to set up a Community Cafe, which functions both as a cafe and as a community hub. We would serve affordable healthy food to local residents as well as deliver weekly activities in the hub, a place where they can meet new people and become one with the community.
Our values that govern everything we do are:
We have 10-20 enthusiastic, friendly, and hard-working people on our team, dedicated to providing the best possible service to those in need. We are constantly looking out for new volunteers and offer several opportunities within our organization, including but not limited to; social media managing, marketing, finance, and HR. We are giving people who may lack skills and experience the opportunity to work in a fast-paced office environment, learn important workplace skills such as organization, confidence, and communication, which will look great on their CVs. Our volunteer opportunities can help combat the issues surrounding isolation by offering a chance to interact with others and help the wider community.
As Shop and Donate’s Chief Executive Officer, Danny knows what he wants and is dedicated to helping the community make their dreams come true. Mixing enthusiasm, target orientation, positivity, and professionalism together with over 6 years of experience in management, has made him into a great team leader.
Iram Rafiq, Gifty Johnson, Merveille Mpoyi, Paul Zabnienski
Last updated: 2nd November 2021
