Well, that's the summer gone. Where did it go? The last 2 months have literally been a whirlwind of activity.
At the beginning of July we partnered with Northumbrian Water - Innovation Festival to encourage young people to think about careers and to use their entrepreneurial skills. We showcased what we do at Big River to over 200 school children - encouraging them to think up some new innovative bakery products and stottie sarnie fillings. We had some amazing ideas.
July also saw us trial a stottie sandwich offer onboard Lumo trains Edinburgh to London. It was so successful that we will be starting again form 16th September - so ham & pease pudding stotties will be available on your travels!
During the summer holidays we delivered four baking sessions for up to 15 young people at each session in conjunction with Gateshead Council and Northumbria University teaching the art of baking. In the bakery we delivered 8 free summer holiday baking and activity sessions to 64 local children. Including Stottie Hoying!
It was also a pleasure to help local school children by supplying 300 free lunch bags for school trips in the holidays consisting of a stottie sarnie, crisps, fruit, drink and sweet treat.
On the 12th August we appeared on The One Show (filmed several months ago) with Charlotte Crosby coming to make stotties with us. You can watch it here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuQWVZr-I-w
This brought us a great amount of interest and UK postal stottie sales - so apologies for anyone who hasn't been able to buy any due to us being sold out. New postal dates will be added to the website 16/09/2024.
We also had a bit of a makeover courtesy of ITV when they used the bakery for filming a series starring Sheridan Smith - transforming us into a 1980's Pizza parlour. When I find out when it is due to be aired - I will let you know.
We are also reviewing the way we support those in need/ homeless. From September we have stopped our free daily food cards in the shop. This has been a hard decision to make but due to ongoing alcoholism, drugs, knife carrying, abuse to customers, our team and disruption to the local community we have had to rethink how we do this. We are now looking to support those in need through other organisations where support can be more targeted and I am currently in discussion with Feeding Families charity to see how we can support them. We continue to support free breakfasts for local school children, free Wednesday lunches for all, a local homeless hostel and pop up pantries. Any donations received will continue to support these projects. Once a decision has been made how we continue our support I will let you know.
For those who like stats in July and August with your generous support we supplied:
558 free meals and hot drinks to those in need
225 free Wednesday lunches
210 free breakfasts to school children
300 packed lunches for kids school holiday trips
64 places for kids summer holiday baking
I'm now in the middle of arranging the second National Stottie Cake Week 2025 - half term week 24/02/2025 - 01/03/2025 - I have some exciting ideas - so fingers crossed that we manage to pull them off.
Autumn - here we come. It's going to be busy! Take care everyone x