Chairman's Report

CHAIRMANS REPORT 2025

This year, our charity has continued to operate from Dukes House in central Slough which has been working well despite the buildings dilapidations. In late 2025 we were served notice so Dukes House can be demolished and will vacate in early January 2026.  The charity will be re-locating to newer premises in Langley, also rent free, but we will have to pay for electricity. We will be there on a rolling contract basis.

The food share operation has been running smoothly on the whole, with the collections of surplus food from local sources including, Waitrose, Coop, Tesco, M&S Foodstores, Lidl, Gate Gourmet railway supplies, Costa and many others. We have teams of multi-faith volunteer packers (a different faith each night) who sort and pack our van for delivery, driven by different volunteers each morning, to local charities and schools. We also rely on a small group of other volunteers who have been collecting furniture etc and delivering to homeless guests who have been given a room by Slough Council, Macmillan Cancer charity and The Prisoner Release Scheme.

We have no paid staff, receive no funding and operate entirely on the goodwill of our amazing volunteers, without them the charity would not be able to exist.

We still use St Joseph’s Church premises in Chalfont St Peter, Gerrards Cross, every Monday throughout the year, for the preparation of soup, tea and sandwiches, which are then delivered to approx 200 homeless guests in London by a rota of volunteers. We have a loyal and invaluable team who have been preparing these food parcels for many years.

Earlier in the year we were lucky to have a group of Graduates from Allied Irish Bank take a close look at the productivity and effectiveness of our charity.  We have been able to take their findings on board and are looking at our delivery schedule and client requirements to ensure charities are receiving exactly what they require in order to avoid unnecessary food wastage.

Our fundraising event this year was a second charity Dawn Walk but at a different venue.  We held the event at Harmondsworth Moor, parkland owned by British Airways, and again the event raised much needed funds.  We were sponsored by British Airways and were joined by Graduates from Allied Irish Bank who marshalled the course and helped set up and clear away.  The event was attended by approx 100 early morning walkers, for which we were very grateful.

We still work closely with Slough Borough Council’s Rough Sleeper team to provide support that the Council are unable to, due to the guests not being eligible for financial support or help. We are looking at further ways we can assist the ever increasing numbers of homeless in Slough.

This year we have held a few Corporate Volunteering Days and have enjoyed hosting local companies including Slough Business Community Partnership, Bidfoods, Virgin Media O2, Mars and British Airways.

The Trustees are very grateful to all our donors who have kept us afloat this year, including British Airways, , St Joseph’s Priory (for allowing us to use their premises over many years to prepare for our Monday run to London) plus our many other individual donors. Thank you.

Each of the Trustees on the Board are ‘hands on’ with the day to day running of the Charity and we continue to be grateful to all our volunteers for giving up their time and their selfless and tireless work in support of the most vulnerable and marginalised people in society.

On behalf of London and Slough Charitable Trust, by order of the Trustees

 

Malcolm Johnstone

Chairman

London and Slough Charitable Trust is a UK registered charity, number 1000331