Trying to make a difference, one citrus fruit at a time!
At the beginning of Shed One, we realised we were going to have a lot of spare citrus fruit as we use fresh zest in our gins. So, Zoe started making Gin Jelly Marmalade and we would ask for donations. We realised this would be a great way to raise money for charity, and so those donations went into our Marmalade Fund. We then started our Bottle Return scheme. People returned their empty bottles to us, and in return we added a few pence to our fund. Not only is this a fab way to raise money for charity, but also means our bottles get reused - a tick for the environment. The money from the Marmalade Fund is then donated to charities each year. Now, due to it's great success, we sell our Marmalade as one of Shed One's official products and we put £2 from each jar we sell into the Marmalade Fund. We have continued our Bottle Return scheme and for every small bottle and full sized marmalade jar you return, we'll give 10p to charity. For every large bottle, we donate 20p to charity. Continuing our vision to find a practical way to raise money for charity, part of each sale from our Ulverston Gin and some of our limited edition spirits are also added to the fund.
Since launching our Marmalade Fund we have donated over £15,000 to charity. That's a lot of Marmalade!
In 2024, we will be continuing our partnership with Furness Homeless Support Group, while supporting CAfS in other ways.
Furness Homeless Support Group was launched as a Christmas Shelter in 1989. Nowadays, they offer supported accommodation to single homeless people. Their current facilities include 9 single rooms of supported accommodation, a newly re-furbished 1 bed ground floor flat, a day centre (open Monday-Friday for drop in and midday meals), a Charity Shop and they continue to run their Christmas Shelter.
Cumbria Action for Sustainability (CAfS) is an award winning charity which has been tackling climate change for 20 years. Their vision is a zero carbon Cumbria, one in which we all have a better way of life in balance with our environment. They help communities across Cumbria to live and work more sustainably – to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in ways which also improve people’s quality of life. In addition, they help Cumbrians cope with the devastating impacts of increased rainfall and flooding caused by climate change and which disproportionately affects the most vulnerable. They do all this by sharing their practical experience, knowledge and skills, and creating, supporting and influencing networks.
2023
2023 was a challenging year for many businesses, ourselves included. However, we continued to support charities and groups as best we could.
From 2024, Furness Homeless Support will continue to be our main charity partner. Ford Park (many people don't realise our local, beautiful park is a charity) will be receiving donations via the Botanical Spirits we create using their produce. We will continue to supply St Mary's Hospice with their own label charity gin. We have some other ideas in the still for raising charity funds!
Furness Homeless: £800 + £100 from WI talks + £250 shopping
Cafs: £650
St Mary’s Hospice: Own label Gin being sold at the hospice; various vouchers and bottles for raffles.
Ford Park, Ulverston: £100. Quince, Pear & Sage vodka and jelly (created with botanicals from their walled garden). We donate the jars of jelly for them to sell. We sell the vodka at Shed One and online.
Another Fine Fest: £500 + various bottles of gin, and vouchers for their raffles.
Cumbria Poverty Truth Commission: 100 mini jars of marmalade for their launch.
Vision Support: Takings and raffle at a Hands-on Distillery Tour & Tasting at Shed One.
Plus, here are some of the groups we donated products to:
Oak Tree Animals
Hut Fest
Cumbria Community Foundation
Shared Lives Westmorland and Furness
Kendal Pride
Allithwaite Bowling club in aid of Prostate and Breast Cancer charities
Ormsgill Primary School
Good220 for Brathay youth matters and Alzheimer’s research
Carer Support South Lakes
Theatre & Event Technology, Kendal College
Castle Green Hotel for Muscular Dystrophy
Aroma Catering Foundation
Lakeland Festival of Light Serie
Lowick Young Farmers for St Mary’s Hospice
2022
We are so pleased to tell you that one of the best gin shed highlights from 2022 was, we raised over £3,000. This was through selling our gin jelly marmalade, Ulverston Gin, donations from community group Gin Talks and a couple of awareness raising events at the Shed. Each charity has received 50% of the total and we did a £250.00 shop for FHSG for their community festive meals/presents. Cannot thank you all enough for helping us to support our community.
We also made financial/product donations to the following charities and groups:
Another Fine Fest, Ulverston
Great Ormond Street
Heron Mill
Farmers Arms (Grizedale Arts)
Vision Support, Barrow & District
St Mary’s Hospice
MacMillan
CHOC
Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM)
Myton Hospice
Glasson Community Association
Croftlands Junior School
South Lakes Citizens’ Advice
Furness Refugee Support
The Roxy Cinema Collective
North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust
Thank you so very much for buying our Gin Jelly Marmalade over the last 12 months. Part of every sale goes into our Marmalade Fund and is then donated to our charity partners: Furness Homeless Support Group & Cumbria Action for Sustainability (CAfS).
We’ve been able to donate £1,300 to FHSG and £1,280 to CAfS (including money from a couple of fundraisers)
- As well as the above we donated monies/products to:
- Great Ormond Street Hospital
- Leave A Light On
- Cancer Care
- MacMillan
- Myton Hospice
- CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably)
- Plus various local schools, groups and hospices.
- We’ve also continued supplying our crowdfunded hand sanitiser to schools and groups.
SO MANY THANKS to you all for helping us help others.
Cheers!
