Second Quarter Update

Executive Summary

It has been half a year since Meal on Me was started.  We thank everyone for the enormous support that you have given to us over these 6 months.  We would also like to wish you a Happy New Year and a successful one.

This second quarter has been a quiet one, a quarter of consolidation and trying to overcome some challenges that we faced.  In summary, for the second quarter, we have accomplished the following activities:
1.  Issued 60 vouchers for each of the three organisations in October (September end) and November (October end) combined.

2.  Received several donations such that we have £533.33 in the bank account in reserve.

3.  Sent out 60 greeting cards over the festive season for the clients of the three organisations.

4.  Asked if the organisations would help us conduct a survey of the service we are providing among their clients.

5.  Received 34 redeemed vouchers from Aroma Cafe.

We did not issued any vouchers in December and neither are we issuing any vouchers in early January 2014.  This is because they are still 242 out of the 312 vouchers we have issued so far that are still to be used.  We hope that more vouchers will be redeemed before we issue more.

The main users of vouchers seem to be from the One Parent Families and Bethany Trust.  Based on feedback we have had with various parties, we have taken the decision to terminate our association with Saheliya.  We are looking for another organisation to partner with.

Other decisions on improvement of Meal on Me will have to wait till we receive back the survey and have done our analysis.

Accounting

In terms of the accounts, we thank you, our donors, for your generosity.  We have to date £533.33 in the bank account and we also received £10 from Miss Shahidah Shah to pay for the greeting cards.

30/9/2013	Balance C/F	703.33
1/10/2013	Transfer to Aroma Café	-450
4/10/2013	NM	50
8/10/2013	MS	10
22/10/2013	SA	50
24/10/2013	Anonymous	300
25/10/2013	Anonymous	50
31/10/2013	Total October	713.33
30/10/2013	Balance C/F	713.33
4/11/2013	Transfer to Aroma Café	-450
4/11/2013	NM	50
8/11/2013	MS	10
22/11/2013	SA	50
25/11/2013	Gordon McGill	25
25/11/2013	Anonymous	25
30/11/2013	Total November	423.33
30/11/2013	Balance C/F	423.33
4/12/2013	NM	50
8/12/2013	MS	10
24/12/2013	SA	50
30/12/2013	Total December	533.33
30/12/2013	Balance C/F	533.33

Voucher Movement

We have in the last two months collected back 34 vouchers which makes the total of vouchers used in the last half year to be 70.  There are 242 vouchers left to be used/distributed.  We are working with the organisations to see where the distribution activities can be progressed further.

Issue Date	No. of Vouchers Given to Organizations	No.  Of Vouchers Collected	No. Of Vouchers to be collected
July	40	0	40
August	20	14	6
September	72	22	50
October	90	0	90
November	90	15	75
December	0	19	-19
Total	312	70	242

Relationship Challenges

There has been problems with clients coming into the cafe at times and ordering more than £5 worth of meal.  We had an understanding with the cafe owner, Mr. Akbar, that he would not charge them if the price of the meal was not too much over £5.  However, we have had feedback that this was not the case.  At the current moment, our vouchers do not state the value because we felt it was more dignified for the voucher users.  But as it is creating a misunderstanding between the users and the cafe, we are going to put the value of the voucher in the hope that it will lessen the misunderstanding between the voucher users and the cafe.

We are also reviewing the service we are providing through the survey that we are conducting.  We hope to get back the completed survey this month so that we can tighten the running of the project and address any problems or dissatisfaction that the users have.

Sadly, we have decided that our relationship with Saheliya will be coming to an end because of several reasons:

1.  They have not been distributing the vouchers to their clients very regularly. 

2.  Their clients have difficulty in coming to the cafe to use the vouchers as these are usually women involved with abused cases.

3.  There has been rumours that the staff at Saheliya were using the vouchers themselves.  We have been unable to confirm these rumours but we are not happy with any hint of misappropriation of the vouchers (and indirectly the donations from the generous donors).  

We are looking to see if we are able to obtain/reclaim the undistributed vouchers we have given to them to be redistributed to the other organisations or to be given to a new organisation.  We will keep you, our donors, posted on this matter.

Meanwhile, have a happy and blessed new year.

Regards,

The Meal on Me Team