At Filling Good, we don’t just talk about giving back to our community - we actually do! At our recent AGM meeting, Filling Good members unanimously voted to donate £3,000, 30% of the shop’s profits, to support environmental initiatives.
We’ve already donated half (£1,500) to TreeSisters. The UK-based social change and reforestation charity funds ethical, community-led planting projects to empower women and support local and indigenous communities. While the remaining £1,500 is still up for grabs.
To allocate the rest of the donation, we opened a search to find a local environmental group or green project. And the applications flew in! We’ve narrowed it down to two fantastic initiatives: EcoAction Hub’s Share a LoT (Library of Things) and Wild Cookham’s The Big Cookham Wildlife Weekend.
But, the final vote is up to you, our customers.
Need help deciding? Read on to find out more about each sustainable project.
ECO Action Hub’s Share a LoT (Library of Things)
This project asks the important question: Why buy when you can borrow?
Envisaged by local volunteers, who also run the successful Repair Café in town, Share a LoT (Library of Things) is a new not-for-profit project based in the ECO Action Hub in Maidenhead.
A LoT is an affordable way to give people access to tools, products or equipment they don’t have at home but need for a limited period. For example, instead of buying a new power drill for DIY, the LoT lends it at a low-to-zero cost. The LoT aims to reduce the amount of “stuff” sitting unused or too large to store at home. Instead, they aim to share these items with the wider community.
Not only is it affordable and convenient, but it’s also kinder to the planet. The project encourages a circular economy, extends the lives of useful products and reduces unnecessary overconsumption.
Share a LoT aims to launch at the ECO Action Hub in Maidenhead’s Nicholson Centre and needs funding to cover its first year of expenses. So far, the project has a small library of items available to borrow but hopes to add more (purchased second-hand where possible) based on the identified needs of local people.
It aims to source existing items, repair them and bring them back to market thanks to the skills of the Repair Café volunteers. Overall, the project will play a major role in helping Maidenhead’s residents to reduce waste and save money!
WildCookham’s The Big Cookham Wildlife Safari Weekend
This initiative will highlight not only the challenges but also the opportunities to reverse the future of our cherished wildlife.
For nearly a decade, WildCookham has been advocating a ‘Gardening for Wildlife’ project. It encourages residents to do more to support our declining wildlife. Now, it wants to learn what difference the past 10 years have made to the participating gardens. While also helping the wider community understand the increasingly important role our gardens play in supporting wildlife.
The Big Cookham Wildlife Weekend initiative will encourage families to get into their gardens over the same weekend in 2024. They’ll be tasked with seeing how many different plants, birds and insects they can spot. It promises to be a fun time for the kids, informative for the parents and a measure of our collective efforts to turn the tables in wildlife declines.
It will host a platform for photographs to help with identification and a special team of experts on hand to help. Plus, additional resources to explain the essential link between our garden plants and local wildlife will be readily available. They also plan to create a range of identification sheets to help participants find all of the amazing insects, birds and plants living right in their gardens.
WildCookham will also be sharing a special wildflower seed mix in memory of a significant member of the community.
All data collected in the project will be shared with the region’s Environmental Record Centre for use in the Local Nature Recovery Strategy chaired by RBWM.
To get the project off the ground, WildCookham needs funding to cover the costs of the various resources such as identification charts, flyers and wildflower seeds. The world is rapidly changing, and British wildlife is struggling to keep up, but this project aims to collect useful data to give it a helping chance.
How to cast your vote
Collect a token (penny) every time you shop in-store.
Cast your vote by placing your token in the relevant upcycled jar.
Keep voting every time you shop.
As a local, community-driven not-for-profit organisation, Filling Good values our customers, and we want to amplify your voices. We want to raise awareness of local environmental issues while offering real opportunities to get involved in the causes that matter to you the most. That’s why we’re putting the final vote to you.
Pop in-store to chat with our lovely volunteers about the two projects and cast your vote.
Voting will take place until the 2nd of December 2023. Votes will be counted the following week, and the donation made to the winner!