Cranswick Convenience Foods Milton Keynes has been awarded a Milton Keynes Mayor's Award, for ‘Outstanding Corporate Contribution to Charity’. Colleagues at the site were commended for continuing to make a difference to the lives of everyone in Milton Keynes and remaining committed to being a force for good.
With community at the heart of the business, Cranswick Milton Keynes endeavour to build a workforce that reflects the local population and are working proactively to address some of the city’s biggest challenges.
The site has been working closely with community partner, Winter Night Shelter, since 2020 – to date having raised more than £75,000 for the charity – as well as establishing staff volunteering pathways and employment opportunities for those who have experienced homelessness. These valued employees are now earning a living, gaining new skills and looking forward to a much brighter future. Every year the team, led by HR Manager Rachel, also organise a community Family Fun Day to raise vital funds and awareness for the shelter.
Cranswick Milton Keynes also work with MK SNAP and MK Supported Employment, offering employment opportunities to people with learning difficulties, and sponsoring YMCA Milton Keynes’s SoupFest cookbook, enabling the charity to use 100% of the book’s proceeds to support local young people.
As a food business, Cranswick Milton Keynes recognise their responsibility to help tackle food poverty in their community. A long-established partnership with food redistribution charity PlanZheroes has provided more than 10,000 meals, through an initiative that offered free packed lunches to schoolchildren during the pandemic and weekly food hampers with cooking guides to help make meals go further. Also making donations of food and funds to organisations such as Food Bank MK and the Frank Moran Centre.
The partnerships with these local charity partners are central to the mission of the site and a fundamental element of the overarching Second Nature sustainability strategy, providing pathways for people to improve their lives and championing that other businesses do the same.