Agenda item

To receive a presentation on the work of the local community organisation that provides a wide range of support to vulnerable people.

James Hunt gave a presentation on his background and the setting up of Nanny Biscuit.  After leaving school, he became a Gas Engineer before joining the Army in 2010 but unfortunately due to an injury while serving in Afghanistan, had to leave.  Suffering both mentally and physically he wanted to help people rather than be helped himself and so he set up Nanny Biscuit in 2018 - named after his Nan who passed away in 2017 as she used to give him biscuits. He realised his passion was helping the Community when he provided Christmas dinner and entertainment to those suffering from loneliness and isolation.  He then sought help to gain more knowledge to develop other ideas that he had, such as free holistic therapies.  With his background as a gas engineer, he had thought of doing something along the lines of DIY SOS but as this would have been costly, he turned his plumbing and heating company CAF Gas into a Social Enterprise in 2020 in order to use its profits and assets to help the most vulnerable in the Community rather than seek grants.  Due to the pandemic, it had to be put on hold and he decided to just concentrate on the Nanny Biscuit side of things.  He showed Members a video of what they did during the pandemic which included delivering food parcels, provided outdoor concert to a Care Home, buddie calling for emotional support to isolated people and in collaboration with MoneySuperMarket, they delivered over 44,000 meals.

            During the second lockdown, he set up an annual event of seven days of activities and challenges around Wales called a Grand Week in Wales in order to get Communities working together.

There were now three food pantries in Connah’s Quay, Shotton and Sandycroft which were run by a group of volunteers.  Money raised from selling 10 items of food for £3, donated by FairShare, was used along with donations to buy key staple items.

Councillor Mackie asked about the impact of the closure of the Shotton site due to the lack of funding from the Council for rent.  In response, James said that currently it would be a major problem as they were unable to cover the cost due to the increase of the price of food.  The Chair questioned the size of the premises that they needed and James informed Members that people not only came in for food; they also came in for the social side and have a cup of tea and a chat which had been a big benefit of the pantries.

Both Councillors Mackie and Gladys Healey suggested that James contacted them direct so they could share ideas, as they both ran drop-in centres a couple of days a week in their areas to ease loneliness.