Our CSR Story

Mental Health First Aid at TSC

We communicate with each other more than ever before, yet we can still find it hard to talk about certain issues like depression, stress, anxiety and other mental health related issues. Most of us experience challenging times in our lives, and each person deals with things differently.

At TSC Foods we are raising the importance of dealing with mental health issues and removing the stigma attached to it. A number of TSC colleagues have completed a Mental Health First Aid Course with MHFA, and those trained can:

Understand the important factors affecting mental ill health
Identify the signs and symptoms for a range of mental health conditions
Use practical tools to provide Mental Health First Aid to someone experiencing a mental health issue or crisis
Listen non-judgementally and hold supportive conversations using the Mental Health First Aid action plan
Signpost people to professional help, recognising that the role of a Mental Health First Aider does not replace the need for ongoing support

The feedback from those that attended the course was really positive and some even quoted it as the best course they had ever attended.

The last of the training takes place in July, and once complete TSC will have 10 trained Mental Health First Aiders. Well done to all involved.

Volunteer Day for LEAP team

Well done to Gerraint, Khia and Pete from the LEAP employee development programme. They spent a day volunteering with Fareshare, a charity dedicated to reducing waste. English Provender Company are working hard with charities such as Fareshare and other ‘zero to landfill’ initiatives to improve the management of food waste. The teams volunteer day included meeting people who have benefited from the donations and learning more about the positive impact on the community. So far EPC has donated 8,600kg of surplus product to Fareshare, enough to make 19,780 meals!

Christmas Jumper Day

There was no shortage of festive sprit across The Billington Group on 14th December, as all of our sites took part in Christmas Jumper Day, raising funds for Buttle UK. Well done to everyone involved and a special congratulations to TSC in Scunthorpe who won best site photo, as judged by Buttle themselves!

England Counties Road Run

Congratulations are in order for John Saunders, Bulk Driver from CBAL Carlisle, who successfully completed his tractor road run through all English Counties in a Massey Ferguson 135. John worked incredibly hard restoring his tractor and planning his route to enable him to complete the challenge in just two weeks. John’s goal of £5,000 was topped with an amazing £5,300 being raised for Cancer Research UK.

Well done John!

Carrs Billington Supports FCN!

Carrs Billington Employees have joined forces with a host of other local businesses to raise money for The Farming Community Network in the GAFT charity bike ride. The bike ride is a relay starting at Westminster and finishing at NFU headquarters at Stoneleigh Park. Each leg is approximately 100 miles with a number of different riders in each leg. Our employees from Lancaster and Stone are joining in to raise as much money as possible for the FCN- a charity dedicated to supporting farmers and their families. We look forward to updating you on how much money has been raised!

Introducing The Billington Foundation

There are some exciting changes coming for The Billington Group and our fundraising activities…

From September 2018 the Group will be setting up The Billington Foundation, a trust set up by the business that will align with one charity in a partnership that we hope will maximise fundraising efforts and make our money go further.

Previously as a group each subsidiary has chosen a charity annually that they raise money for through various activities such as bake sales, raffles, charity races and much more. We want to carry on this great work across the business and continue to encourage a passion for fundraising. We believe that by changing our focus to one charity we will be able to make a bigger impact to their cause and see exactly where any funds raised are being spent.

Our Partner Charity

The charity we have chosen is Buttle UK- a small/medium sized charity dedicated to helping children and young people who are in crisis reach their potential by providing targeted and effective interventions. In 2017/18 Buttle provided over 12,500 grants to individuals worth £4.6million. This money prevents those in need falling further into crisis and helps them transform their lives by providing essential items others may take for granted such as beds, washing machines, equipment for school/college and much more.

The nature of the charities work means that any funds raised on sites throughout the Group can be targeted to the specific area the money has been raised. There are as many as 400,000 children in the UK without a bed to sleep in and the money we can raise for Buttle as a Group can make a huge difference to statistics such as these.

We have appointed a dedicated and enthusiastic charity champion from each subsidiary along with a shareholder champion to motivate others to raise as much money as possible for their respective areas.

We look forward to updating you on how our fundraising is going!

Scunthorpe Race For Life

34 ladies from TSC joined forces to raise money for cancer research by doing the Scunthorpe Race For Life on 6th June 2018. They did incredibly well raising an amazing £3,187. Well done to all involved and thank you to everyone that donated.

Rosemary Appeal

David Ball from the Rosemary Appeal visited EPC on Thursday 3rd August and was delighted with the presentation of a cheque to the value of £5,000.00. The donation from the Edward Billington & Son charity committee will help David and his team in their endeavours to raise £4.5m for a new centre at West Berkshire Community Hospital, providing essential facilities to the local community, including day therapy, chemotherapy, renal dialysis, IV therapies and a CT Scanner.

The Great North Run

Congratulations to Matthew Buckle & Mark Tindall at TSC who both ran The Great North Run on Sunday 10^th
September 2017. The Great North Run half marathon takes place every September between Newcastle and
South Shields spanning 13.1 miles. Between them Matthew & Mark have raised over £900 so well done to both for this achievement!

Dragon Boathouse Claire House

Team Billington, comprising members of Edward Billington and Son Ltd, Billington Biofuels, and Criddle and Co competed on 20th October in a Dragon Boat Race in Liverpool to raise funds for Claire House – all dressed in eyecatching Where’s Wally outfits!

To date, around £600 for Claire House has been raised online and offline – thank you to those who have already supported us.