Mustard Tree’s Round-Up 01.04.22

Jack Barton Apr 1

You’d be forgiven for thinking it was an April Fools’ prank, but sadly there’s no punchline. Today, a staggering 54% rise in the energy price cap1 comes into effect, with further increases expected in October.

The reality of ‘fuel poverty’ is already a big problem in the areas Mustard Tree deliver services, as illustrated by the below Greater Manchester Poverty Action (GMPA) chart:

According to GMPA, “households are considered to be fuel poor if they have required fuel costs that are above average, and were they to spend that amount, they would be left with an income below the poverty line”.

You may remember this article we published last year, explaining how our hardship fund is increasingly being used to help people settle arrears, preventing them from being evicted and at risk of homelessness.

Salfordian Spirit

We want to thank Mel at Salford Now, who spent a couple of days with our Little Hulton and Eccles teams to write a comprehensive piece about our impact in Salford.

Gloria – one of our Freedom Project trainees – also mentions that volunteering with Mustard Tree means that she can ‘help others as well as helping herself’.

We hope you enjoy reading the piece, and thank you to our wonderful Salford staff, volunteers, trainees, customers and clients who support and visit our hubs regularly.

Freedom Graduation

It only seems like last week since we had our last Freedom graduation, but we’re delighted to have four more trainees join the Mustard Tree Freedom alumni – having gained new skills, built confidence and completed vocational courses such as Customer Service and Computer Confidence.

Want to know when our next Freedom open day is? Drop us a referral using this link and our team will be in touch.

MHA Ball 2022

Tonight we’ll be attending the prestigious MHA Ball, in which Mustard Tree will be one of the beneficiaries of the Manchester Hoteliers Association’s incredible fundraising efforts. We gave a quick update on all things Mustard Tree at their monthly meeting earlier this week.

The MHA Ball also gives us an opportunity to say a huge thank you for everything they do to support our mission – from food, clothing and furniture donations – to providing training and work placements for our Freedom trainees. We can’t wait for tonight, and good luck to all the award nominees.

Can you help us combat poverty and prevent homelessness?

If you enjoy reading our newsletter and want to support our work, the best way you can do this is by joining the Real 10k and setting up a regular gift to help keep our services running. We have an aim to recruit 10,000 donors – each giving £5 a month – to help secure our charity for years to come – and create lasting change across Manchester and Salford.

Please join us in this mission by clicking the button below.

Join the Real 10k

To our partners who are already supporting us with a monthly donation, please share this newsletter with friends, family members and colleagues – and thank you so much for all your ongoing support. Your kind donations are vital for us to continue our work and much appreciated by us all.