I’m writing to introduce you to our Community Resource Service (CRS) and to ask for your support to purchase a much needed van. We are in urgent need of a transit size van to collect and deliver donated items as all our funds are swallowed up by the constant need to hire vans.

We are seeking to raise around £10,000 and would be very grateful for any contribution that you are able to offer.

CRS was set up to support the recycling and reuse of unwanted resources for the benefit of other charitable and voluntary organisations. We source and collect reusable items from businesses and manufactures that would otherwise go to landfill or be left gathering dust. This enables us to put tons of valuable products, food and materials to good use.

We are working with other charitable organisations, local councils, agencies, businesses and communities to promote the sharing of resources and the reduction waste.

CRS started a few years ago and offers its services throughout the Lancashire area; it has been personally funded by the founder and project manager Sandra Royle. It was whilst Sandra was volunteering at a soup kitchen in Blackpool, that she became aware of their lack of supplies and their constant need of items and it gave her an idea! She started contacting local supermarkets and businesses asking them if they would kindly donate their short dated produce to soup kitchens and food banks and she was quickly inundated with offers to make collections on a regular basis.

Sandra saw this as an opportunity to support other charitable organisations by using her sourcing skills to trace and collect reusable items from all types of businesses and manufactures that would otherwise go to landfill – and Community Resource Services (CRS) was born!

We currently distribute surplus food and equipment to several partners that in turn provide over 150,000 meals and food parcels every year via soup kitchens and hostels.

CRS has now greatly outgrown its ability to be run on a part-time casual basis due to the large volume of items being donated.

Early this year, we decided to start running the project on a full-time basis, seek a building from which to run the project and to register the project as a legal entity.

Christian Integrated Services is now registered as a Community Interest Company. Registration number: 11395292. We are known as the CIS Group.

And unlike many of the bigger players, as a registered, community interest company, we apply business principles to social problems. And since there are no shareholders in our non-profit organisation, any profits we generate will be ploughed back into the work that we do.

We have recently accepted the offer of a five year lease on an empty church building in Blackpool by the Diocese of Blackburn for an annual rental of £1 from where we will run a community resource store.

New reusable items will be made available to non-for-profit organisations through a membership scheme. Members will be able to make purchases from our resource store for a minimal fee which will enable them to make better use of their available funds. We especially source and provide items that are needed on a regular basis like stationery, washroom & hygiene supplies, food etc. Members with little or no funds often ask us to source items on their behalf which we are always happy to do.

We are aiming to be completely financially self-supporting; by generating all the income needed to meet the overheads of the resource service through the income generated from the items sold to our members. This will be achieved by the opening of a resource store in our new building where we will be able to increase our stock levels and our members will be able to visit our store to make their purchases.

There will be no financial outlay for our stock because all stock will be donated items which will give us a 100% profit on all items sold.

We are currently limited to supporting around 20 groups but this number will significantly increase when we have our own a van and have the much needed storage space that will be made available to us when we move into our new premises.

It is hard to put an overall figure on how many people our project has helped and can help because we support other charitable organisations that combined, support many thousands of individuals. Our project has an overwhelming effect on the end users of all the groups that we support as it contributes to the value added to the work of all these other organisations.

Our long-term goal is to engage with all the charitable and voluntary organisations that operate in the communities within which we currently work (Lancashire) to whom we will promote recycling, charitable giving and sharing.

In October 2017, the Charity Commission website listed a substantial total of 3,552 charities operating in the Lancashire County Council area, with a further 258 in the Blackpool the area where are new building is located.

These figures only include registered charities and not the hundreds of third sector voluntary, non-profit making, community organisations, food banks and soup kitchens and churches etc.

We currently distribute surplus food and equipment to partner agencies in Blackpool that in turn provide over 150,000 meals and food parcels every year via soup kitchens and hostels.

The thousands of charitable organisations that operate within the county of Lancashire form a very disparate group of organisations. The majority of these groups look to provide relief for those facing poverty and homelessness, whilst others provide employment and educational support etc. But they all enhance community spirit and generally improve the quality of life of local residents who may either benefit from their services or gain satisfaction from supporting one or more charities with giving their time or financial help.

We are committed to delivering a positive and enduring impact on the communities and charitable organisations that we serve.

Thank you for taking the time to read our story.