We all face many challenges in the modern world and as we continue to navigate through these, we want to make sure that we do not lose sight of what is important to us at Cobbs.
We believe in being good to our world through supporting our local community and charitable causes as well as being committed to reduce our impact on the environment.
We have therefore made the following pledges:
· We will work with amazing charities across West Berkshire, Hampshire, and Wiltshire, all of whom work to directly benefit their local communities:
· We will provide meaningful opportunities for disadvantaged individuals to get themselves into the workplace
· We will donate to locally-focused fundraising initiatives and charities in our communities
· We will continue our ongoing work to reduce our carbon footprint wherever possible
Who we work with:
Ways into Work
This amazing organisation provides supported employment for disadvantaged individuals to help them find their way into a workplace.
We teamed up with Ways into Work in 2018 and we look forward to continuing our relationship.
We have some wonderful employees across our farm shops and cafés and our aim is to be able to offer more placements at each site for disadvantaged individuals.
Local Charitable Organisations
We currently support the following charities across Berkshire and Hampshire:
The Swindon Down’s Syndrome Group
We are supporting these charities in a variety of ways:
Weekly donations of fresh produce and farm shop donation stations for customers who also wish to donate to their cause.
Cobbs events that we host throughout the year will also help fundraise vital funds for these incredible charities.
Through our Staff Initiative, we will be providing our teams with the opportunity to volunteer at our supported charities on selected days throughout the year and swap their “day-job” for a chance to work at a drop-in centre or soup kitchen, providing vital hands-on support to our nominated charities.
Our community achievements in 2022-2023
We continue to donate weekly food boxes to our local charities.
We are working closely with Swindon’s Down Syndrome Group and we will be raising money through different schemes throughout the year.
We will continue to further support Ways Into Work and offer more job placements throughout our farm shops and cafés for disadvantaged people.
Our
environmental commitment
Reducing our impact on the environment remains at the heart of the decisions we take
Every year we challenge our processes and policies to see where, with the help of innovative new technology and products, we can reduce our impact on the environment.
From significantly reducing our use of throwaway plastics; to installing self-dispensing food machines and moving to a renewable energy supplier.
This year, we have introduced our first paper carrier bag to our farm shops. This move not only helps us eliminate our use of throwaway plastic but also our carbon-footprint. These paper bags are made and printed in the UK, using recycled paper. They are strong enough to fill with all your shopping and to be reused. We are also proud to be able to say that we have nearly eliminated the use of non-recyclable packaging on our butchery counters entirely.
We work with local producers and suppliers who share our ethos and values, in turn, this also allows us to reduce our carbon footprint.
fun facts:
We have now invested in 4 electric vehicles (and more incoming) in the business which has replaced circa 70,000miles annually from diesel polluting vehicles formerly used.
Electric car charging points powered with fully renewable energy, have been installed free to use at our Hungerford and Englefield sites with plans to upgrade those to super-fast chargers in the coming year.
We have now removed all plastic bags entirely from our business and implemented a recycled kraft bag instead.
We have significantly reduced the use of non-recyclable packaging across the whole group including our butchers. Your trays will now be fully recyclable & compostable
We will always continue to expand and grow our support for the local community-based charities we work with and seek out new opportunities to support new initiatives.
We continue to seek out even more local producers and growers to reduce the food miles & in turn, carbon footprint of the products we sell wherever possible.
To watch the carbon footprint we are reducing the days we get our deliveries from suppliers to ensure we don’t have vans on routes when they’re not needed.