charity & community
Since moving to Brentwood in 2011 Bakers has made regular donations to various charities as well as supporting the local community through sponsorships and volunteering.
MD Steve Baker places a high importance on providing this aid and knows the difference it can make. Not only does it assist good causes, it also provides Bakers’ staff with the opportunity to learn about the amazing work the charities do, and a great feeling knowing their hard work means the company can make these generous donations.
Charity
£ donated since 2011
In 2023 for Baker Label’s 50th year, Bakers Foundation was launched. Bakers has always made regular donations to charity, but this new sector was a way to give our ongoing support more structure. We now have a commitment to donate a fixed % of profits to charity each year. This amount will be spread across various organisations. For the first year of Bakers Foundation we donated a total of £150,000.
Charities we have supported
Kids Inspire
Kids Inspire has been one of Baker’s chosen charities since 2011. In that time Bakers has donated around £100,000 to the charity.
They are a local charity based in Chelmsford and provide support to young people across Essex who are at an educational, social and/or economic disadvantage. The charity mainly supports those recovering from trauma and/or dealing with emerging mental health issues.
Bakers staff regularly visit their premises to volunteer for their many different schemes such as wrapping and delivering Christmas presents to children or their summer lunch club. In 2022 Steve and Harry Baker cycled from London to Paris (200 miles) to raise funds for the charity.
‘Your continued loyalty to the charity and the support you provide means the world to us. Your positive action has made such a difference to the children and families in our community.’
Paula Ashfield (Head of Fundraising)
SNAP
SNAP is an Essex charity which provides support and advice for families with children that have special needs or disabilities. The charity’s vision is to provide a safe environment, offering a wide range of support and specialist services with the aim to increase resilience and empowerment within families. SNAP has been one of Bakers’ chosen charities for a number of years. In 2022 Bakers even completed a Mud Run and the National 3 Peaks Challenge to fundraise for SNAP.
‘With more than 4,000 families accessing SNAP, meeting the growing demand on our services is an ever-increasing challenge. Thanks to wonderful supporters like you that we can ensure local families who have a child or young person with an additional need get the essential help they need. Thank you again for your continued support.’
Karen Boath (CEO)
Brentwood Foodbank
Brentwood Foodbank was established in 2011 as a partnership between Breakthru Church and Dodd Road Community Church. Brentwood Foodbank works with a number of frontline care agencies to provide food parcels to the most vulnerable members of our community.
Each year more and more families rely on foodbanks. In 2019/20 approximately 1.9 million people used a foodbank in the UK and the Brentwood foodbank alone provided 1,088 three-day emergency food supplies to people in 2020. This sad reality shows how vital it is for foodbanks to have the support of their local communities and how much Bakers donations help them. Over the years Bakers has made many financial and food donations to our local foodbank. We also have supplied them with free labels to use in their warhouse.
‘Your continued faithfulness to the Foodbank is amazing. Thank you seems such a small word to say for your gift. The amazing donations we receive help us to ensure, hopefully, that no one goes hungry.’
Julia Bowler (Volunteer)
Aching Arms
Aching Arms provides comfort to people in their darkest moments. They support families who have lost a baby during pregnancy, birth or soon after. They currently work with over 170 hospitals, hospices and funeral directors by providing comfort bears to nurses and midwives, so they can give them to bereaved parents. Parents can also directly request a comfort bear to be sent to them. In 2022 Aching Arms donated 5,000 bears to parents. Along with providing bears they also offer support services and raise awareness.
In 2021 Aching Arms approached Bakers to ask for help with their new packaging. Since that initial contact Bakers has continued to provide address and logo labels, we also make regularly donations. Bakers donations have gone towards the charity’s support services Supporting Arms, specifically their Bereaved Dads support group.
‘It is incredibly powerful to know that businesses like yours are there to support us through these tricky times.’
Leanna Turner (CEO & Founder)
Community
Bakers Brentwood Half Marathon
Bakers is the new title sponsors for the Brentwood Half Marathon 2024! Our athlete identification brand Sportstiks had previously been the sponsor since 2018. The Brentwood Half Marathon is a fantastic non-profit making event, organised by volunteers from the Rotary of Brentwood a Becket along with local charities and clubs. As part of the organising team we support throughout the build up to the event and on race day to bring a memorable experience for all entrants.
Local sponsorship
In addition to the Brentwood Half Marathon, Bakers are proud sponsors of Great Danes Women’s Football team and Brentwood Rugby Club. We are pleased to support our community through the funding of these local clubs.
Founding members of BEBA
In 2021 we contacted our local council to see if there were any tree planting plans that we could contibute to. This kicked off the discussion of how many other Brentwood companies might want to support their local environmental projects. This led to the launch of Brentwood Environmental Business Association in October 2021.
Since signing up for the iniative we have taken part in a forest managment day, which involved planting 500 trees in a local park. We have also volunteered at a seed collecting day. This day involved climbing trees and wood chopping, it was all about collecting seeds from trees that are indigenous to our surrounding area.
