The award-winning Bolton Family, a group of public and private sector organisations working to improve the lives of local residents, has hosted its annual community picnic in the gardens at the headquarters of founding member, Seddon.
The third Seddy Bear’s Picnic took place at the end of July and saw more than 100 children aged between 5 - 12 come together to enjoy an afternoon of food and entertainment, including an educational wildlife show.
The event was organised in close collaboration with local charity, Urban Outreach, which provides support to disadvantaged and vulnerable members of the Bolton community.
It also supports the charity’s BL19 Packed Lunch Initiative, which aims to feed 2,000 children across the area every day during the six-week summer holiday when they cannot receive free school meals.
The initiative delivers packed lunches to 24 sites, including church halls and community centres, throughout Bolton where families collect from.
On 6th August, Jonathan Seddon, CEO of Seddon, and Jon Lord, Group CEO of Bolton at Home, donned their hairnets and food-handling gloves to help pack the 2,000 lunches prepared daily for the BL19 Packed Lunch initiative.
Since forming in November 2014, the Bolton Family has worked on several community projects within the Bolton area with Urban Outreach, focusing particularly on food poverty, homelessness, training and employment to ensure the initiatives are in line with the council’s Bolton 2030 Vision.
Nicola Hodkinson, director of business services at Seddon, said: “This summer we proudly hosted this fantastic community event for the third time with the full support of all of the members of the Bolton Family.
“Engaging positively with local residents and ensuring we give back to the community is at the core of our business values and it’s a privilege to assist Urban Outreach with this event.”
Jon Lord, CEO of Bolton at Home, said: “Many families find the school holidays challenging and for some it’s about providing lunches during a period when free school meals aren’t available. I’m grateful for the work that Urban Outreach does to support vulnerable families and glad of the opportunity to make a small contribution to this initiative.”
The Bolton Family’s key achievements over the past year include:
- Helping to provide more than four tons of food for the annual Bolton food bank drive
- Assisting in the provision of packed lunches for more than 4,500 children during the 2018 summer holidays
- Working Wardrobe Clothes Drive – providing clothing suitable for work and mentoring the long term unemployed to help them to develop the skills to find employment
- Assisting in planting 28,000 trees on Rivington moorland as part of the Woodland Trust’s Tree Planting initiative