Equipment and technology donated by JT will help a mobile food bank reach more people in need this winter. Church charity, St Vincent de Paul Society Jersey, applied for help from the JT Community Giving scheme which helps local projects and initiatives by offering essential support through funding, technology, technical expertise and dedicated volunteers to local projects and initiatives.
The charity has seen a steady rise in demand for its services, especially its food bank at St Thomas’ Hall in St Helier and it asked for help to create a mobile food bank to visit rural parishes. JT provided the charity with mobile services and an internet-based phone system, enabling the charity’s volunteers to manage the food bank and respond to client calls, regardless of their location.
Pip Carpenter, Head of Commercial Market at JT, said: “The rising cost of living has affected many people in our community and projects like this one are making a significant difference, especially after the devastation caused by Storm Ciarán. One of the reasons that we set up the community giving scheme was to support as many groups with their outreach work as we can. Having the ability to manage their operations while being away from base will help the charity reach more of the people who need their support.”
Throughout the summer, the charity initiated a mobile food bank trial to assist families and elderly individuals who found it challenging to travel into town. Thanks to JT’s donation of mobile broadband, they were able to effectively manage this service expansion.
Dominic Egré, Operations Manager at St Vincent de Paul, says access to these services has been of more value to its operations than a simple cash donation would have been. “This summer and autumn have seen a steady increase in Islanders needing our services which has had us running flat out trying to make sure we can help as many people as possible. It wasn’t long before our trial foodbank became oversubscribed, and unfortunately, we will soon need to expand the service.
JT donated a free mobile broadband service along with a JT Cloud PBX phone system which has really helped us transform the way we do things. The Cloud phone answering and forwarding system has been the most amazing resource and allows all members of our team to make and receive calls from our normal number but using their own devices. We now have virtually no cases where clients or donors’ calls are missed because we are able to respond immediately. The ability for clients to see our normal number appear on their phones makes them more likely to answer, but also maintains the privacy and security of our volunteers, as their personal numbers are not shared, that alone has been worth its weight in gold.’’