STEWARDSHIP Why the Goodness Gang are a good influence on our younger generation The Goodness Gang campaign teaches our children the many ways in which they can have fun with food and learn how to make healthier food choices.
STEWARDSHIP Variety Young Star of The Year Awards - the winners A number of young people were recognised for their bravery, celebrated for their dedication to the local community and praised for their commitment to their families at this year's Variety Young Star of the Year Awards.
STEWARDSHIP Children are the future generation – we must celebrate them Every year Variety – the Children’s Charity of Jersey hold the Young Star of the Year Awards, to recognise and celebrate those children within our community who go out of their way to support our local community and their families. These children make a real difference to the lives of
STEWARDSHIP Pride in our People I was hugely proud to see that a number of my colleagues really do go that ‘extra mile’ and have been deservedly nominated as finalists in the Customer Service category in the prestigious Pride of Guernsey and Pride of Jersey Awards. Pride of Guernsey Customer Service of the Year Award
STEWARDSHIP Society Success - A great business is built by great people We recently held our Annual Rewards and Recognition Awards evening and this for me is the standout event in our corporate calendar. It gives us a chance to get together and celebrate the efforts of our colleagues and teams over the past year, and to share some remarkable stories of
STEWARDSHIP The Foundations of Community Jersey’s society, like many others around the world, has changed. Long gone are the days where multiple generations of the same family lived and worked in the parish they always had. While those times will undoubtedly be fondly remembered by the very oldest members of our community, had they
STEWARDSHIP A Walk Down Memory Lane About a month ago I was transported back to the start of my career. It was a huge pleasure to host Robin Walker, now 82, whom I invited across from Guernsey to look at what we had laid on top of the foundations that he and others had built. Robin
STEWARDSHIP “Basically, it was fantastic!” – Autism Quiet Hour Stressful, bright, busy and loud. These are all words that can be used to describe the world we live in. Now, imagine how overwhelming the shopping experience in today’s hectic world can be for a person living on the autism spectrum. Autism is a lifelong neurological condition that affects
STEWARDSHIP Reasons to Feel Proud One of the greatest things about being part of a successful business at the heart of the community is being able to use our success to make society a better place. This is why we are supporting Pride, an event that champions diversity, acceptance, inclusion and the right to be
STEWARDSHIP A Garden of Memories, Planted with Love Earlier this year, we lost one of our colleagues suddenly. Whilst he was at work. Our business is in many ways like a family, united by a common purpose. So, naturally, we grieved together. And we remembered him together. Our colleagues at De Gruchy’s Funeral Care handled the funeral
STEWARDSHIP Free Fruit for Kids Photo credit: Jersey Evening Post As a parent of two young children, I know how challenging a visit to the supermarket can be. They marvel at the crisps and salivate at the sweets, often trying to slip treats into my basket. So, I am really excited to introduce the new
STEWARDSHIP Why Dying Matters As CEO of our Society, I’m proud to fly the flag for two exceptional funeral propositions, De Gruchy’s Funeral Care in Jersey and Argent Funeral Care in Guernsey. But how do you shout about a business that is built upon something that nobody wants to talk about? While
STEWARDSHIP Celebrating Success Many of you may have already read in some of my previous blogs about how proud I am to lead a Society that bets on people, not strategies. As I’ve said before, business is lives, business is real people! We are under no illusions about the importance of our
STEWARDSHIP Promoting Healthy Habits A few weeks ago, I discussed my #100DayChallenge. As promised, I’d now like to take a moment to talk about the positive things we’re doing across the Channel Islands Co-op to promote the wellness of our people. Our colleague’s health and wellbeing is important to us,
STEWARDSHIP Grow Your Own Goodness Gang Last year we introduced the Goodness Gang to the Channel Islands. These fun, cuddly fruits and veggies were hugely popular and provided a great way to educate kids on the health benefits of eating fruits and vegetables. To give you an idea of exactly how popular the Goodness Gang was,
STEWARDSHIP Sweetening the Deal: Our Fairtrade Commitment It is my pleasure to share the news that from May 2017, all the cocoa used in Co-op own brand products will be Fairtrade. This is a significant step for ethical trading and makes the Co-op the first British retailer to offer products which exclusively use Fairtrade cocoa
STEWARDSHIP A Healthy Competition: #100DayChallenge Before and after, left to right: Donna Abel, Mark Cox and myself. As many of you seem to have noticed, my recent photographs indicate some success with dieting! Thank you for all the positive comments. Lots of people have asked me to share the secrets of my success. So, here
STEWARDSHIP The Gift of Giving While many of us are wrapped up in preparing for Christmas festivities surrounded by our family and friends, it can be easy to forget there are still many less fortunate individuals in our local communities who face the prospect of being alone on Christmas Day. Although we’re tucked away
STEWARDSHIP Raising the bar on wellness I always enjoy our regular discussions with Members. These meetings offer the opportunity to sit down, share what we’ve been working on and hear people’s views on how the Society could serve our communities better. A couple of weeks ago we met with a group of our Members
STEWARDSHIP United Through Pride Tomorrow sees Guernsey’s first ever Pride parade and the start of the inaugural Channel Islands Pride celebration. Jersey will then carry on the party next Saturday with their own parade after the handover of the official CI Pride flag (from the skies no less!). I applaud Liberate, the Channel
STEWARDSHIP No More Boring Veg: Introducing the Goodness Gang As a father of two young boys I have spent many a mealtime watching vegetables being flicked around a plate to wails of ‘Why do I have to eat these Dad, they’re boring!’ Ask your kids what they like, or find fun and chances are vegetables don’t feature
STEWARDSHIP Mencap Pond Project: An environment for learning We’re surrounded by unrivalled natural beauty in the Channel Islands. We can forget how lucky we actually are to have stunning beaches, cliff walks and woods right on our doorsteps and how we all need to make an active effort to protect them. Step in the Eco-Fund. Launched
STEWARDSHIP Variety and your Society: A Winning Team Variety, the children’s charity is very close to our hearts here at The Channel Islands Co-operative Society. As I’ve said before, it’s been a great privilege of mine to work alongside Sandra Auckland in supporting the Variety Star of the Year Awards as key sponsors for
STEWARDSHIP Every Minute Counts Living in the Channel Islands, we easily get used to the small distances we need to travel to get from A to B – so much so that a journey that takes any longer than 20 minutes can feel like an odyssey! While our sense of distance can be a bit
STEWARDSHIP Great businesses are made with great people Although difficult in many ways, I think that 2015 will be looked back upon as our best year ever. Sales were up by 6½ %, and we served more customers than at any other time in our history. We opened new stores at Grouville in Jersey and St Sampsons in Guernsey
