IN JUST nine months a bakery’s staff have smashed their charity targets and managed to raise more than £10,000 for Barnsley Hospital.
Premier Foods, Carlton, started raising funds for the hospital’s Make a Memory Appeal in partnership with colleagues from The Company Shop.
By the time this team of hospital heroes had finished, they’d collected £10,556 for the charity, through raffles, a trek across Snowdon, a cold water plunge and fire and ice walks.
Staff also held their own carnival and post-Christmas celebrations to push the total further.
This huge chunk of money has gone towards transforming the care provided in the hospital’s elderly ward, with particular focus on making a safer, more relaxing environment for dementia patients.
Community and engagement advisor for the company, Mark Booth, told the Chronicle: “We were looking for a local charity we could support in 2023.
“Obviously Barnsley Hospital touches a lot of our employees’ lives so we contacted them to see if we could do some fundraising.
“They were extremely pro-active and helped us to get involved in activities - they’re so helpful and kept us up to date with the totals and things throughout.”
In addition to the fundraising efforts, Premier Foods also donated cakes for the 75th birthday of the NHS and other celebrations and were judges in the charity’s ‘Great Barnsley Bake Off’ competition.
For their hard work, the staff have been nominated for the Hospital Hero award.
“We set a target for £10,000 at the beginning - we were definitely ambitious but we smashed it,” Mark added.
“Our staff have always been generous, so it was really quite easy to get people involved.
“Even simple things like putting change into the collection buckets in the canteen all adds up.
“It’s a testament to Barnsley people - getting a nomination like this gives everyone here a sense of pride for working at Premier Foods. “
Jane Mills, charity development manager at the hospital, said “It is an absolutely incredible achievement to raise £10,556 in such a short space of time; we want to say a huge thank you to all of the team who have organised, participated and got behind our charity to help us make a difference for our older patients and those living with dementia.
“A special thanks to Caroline Lovel and Mark Booth from Premier and Jane Harrison from the Company Shop.”
