First Year (2013-2014) Full Report

Introduction

Time flies and it is now a year since we started this project.  Since then, we have had many good and bad times but we would not have been able to still sustain this project without the support of all of the donors, our partners, the cafe and most importantly the people we are helping.  So we truly thank you!

Here are the details of our journey so far:

Donors:

The project has been so blessed with a lot of supporters and one of form support without which this project cannot do without is donation:

We would like to thank our regular donors who would like to remain anonymous:
N.M.
M.S.
S.S.
S.A.

Between them, we normally have an average income of £115 per month for most months.

We also would like to thank our next batch of donors - they were the initial donors.  Without their belief in this project, it would not even have started:

Gordon McGill
Alex Chai
Isniati Ali
Shereen Baird Gacem
S.A. 1
S.A. 2
S.G.
V.C.

Other donors include:
Sadhia Sarwar
Norbert Jobst
Andrew Edwards
AQ
Jennifer Debbage
Chris Carr
And several anonymous donors

We really thank you all for your continuing support.

Partners:

We started this project, working with 3 different organisations:
1. Bethany Christian Trust
2. One Parent Family Scotland
3. Saheliya

for the benefit of their clients.  We subsequently approached Rock Trust who welcomed our initiative.  We are still working with Aroma Cafe to provide the meal to the needy at £5.  

Events:

Other than regular donations, we have had two bake sales with the support of Edinburgh Central Mosque, once in February 2014 and the other in June 2014.  We are grateful also to the support of those who volunteered by (1) baking the lovely cakes and/or (2) manning the stalls.  For our two bake sales, we spent out of our own pocket £15.

We also launched our website http://mealonme.webs.com/ early this year.  

Accounts/Disbursement of vouchers:

As always, we are publishing the last quarter's accounts, starting with the donations received in cash (which is later transferred to the bank):

Cash		Pound
Date	Description	Dr	Cr
4/4/2014	NM	£50.00
4/25/2014	Chris Carr	£30.00
4/25/2014	Jennifer Debbage	£10.00
4/25/2014	Anonymous	£6.00
4/28/2014	Transfer to Bank		-£96.00
4/28/2014	Total April	£96.00	-£96.00
5/4/2014	NM	£50.00
5/28/2014	Transfer to Bank		-£50.00
5/28/2014	Total May	£50.00	-£50.00
6/4/2014	NM	£50.00
6/6/2014	Bake Sale Profits	£220.00
6/28/2014	Transfer to Bank		-£270.00
6/28/2014	Total June	£270.00	-£270.00

Then there is the donations received through online banking or paypal:

Bank Statement		Pound
Date	Description	Dr	Cr
4/3/2014			-£300.00
4/8/2014	MS	£10.00
4/20/2014	SS	£5.00
4/24/2014	SA	£50.00
4/28/2014	Transferred from cash	£96.00
4/28/2014	Total April	£806.17	-£300.00
4/28/2014	Balance C/F	£506.17
5/3/2014	Paid to Aroma Café		-£300.00
5/8/2014	MS	£10.00
5/20/2014	SS	£5.00
5/24/2014	SA	£50.00
5/28/2014	Transferred from cash	£50.00
5/28/2014	Total May	£621.17	-£300.00
5/28/2014	Balance C/F	£321.17
6/3/2014	Paid to Aroma Café		-£300.00
6/3/2014	MS	£10.00
6/4/2014	SS	£5.00
6/24/2014	SA	£50.00
6/28/2014	Transferred from cash	£270.00
6/28/2014	Total June	£656.17	-£300.00
6/28/2014	Balance C/F	£356.17

As at end of June, we had £356.17 in the bank.  To date, we have £520.04 but the accounts for July will be published in another update.  Previous quarters' accounts can be found on our blog.

To date, we have distributed 612 vouchers, worth £3060 but only 276 vouchers were redeemed.  The following are the breakdown by the month they were issued:

Issue Date	No. of Vouchers Given to Organizations	Value per vaucher (Pound)	Pound Total		Cash Given to Cafe	No. Of Vouchers Collected	Total Value of collected vouchers (Pound)		Value of Vouchers to be collected (Pound)	No. Of Vouchers to be collected
7/31/2013	40	5	£200.00		£300.00	29	£145.00		£155.00	31
8/1/2013	20	5	£100.00		£-	17	£85.00		-£85.00	-17
9/3/2013	72	5	£360.00		£360.00	31	£155.00		£205.00	41
10/2/2013	90	5	£450.00		£450.00	38	£190.00		£260.00	52
11/2/2013	90	5	£450.00		£450.00	47	£235.00		£215.00	43
1/31/2014	60	5	£300.00		£300.00	30	£150.00		£150.00	30
2/28/2014	60	5	£300.00		£300.00	36	£180.00		£120.00	24
3/29/2014	60	5	£300.00		£300.00	26	£130.00		£170.00	34
4/29/2014	60	5	£300.00		£300.00	12	£60.00		£240.00	48
5/31/2014	60	5	£300.00		£300.00	10	£50.00		£250.00	50
Total	612	5	£3,060.00		£3,060.00	276	£1,380.00		£1,680.00	336

We will be holding a meeting with our partners on 2/8 to better understand why their clients are not using more of the vouchers.  As such we have not distributed vouchers for June.

Membership:

We started out this journey with only Sharon and myself.  But since March this year, we were joined by Miss Maria Semper who is enthusiastic about the project and has always been a firm supporter even before she joined our team.

To date, we have organised ourselves as follows:
Sharon Gray    - Chairwoman
Shidrati Ali       - Secretary
Maria Semper  - Treasurer

Please contact us at mealonme.edinburgh@gmail.com if you have any enquiries about the project.  You may also find more information about us in our website or facebook page.

Thank you.

February Updates

Hello everyone,

It's again the end of the month and so it is time for our monthly updates.  We have had quite an active month, actually and are happy to report on the activities.

Activity Updates:

1. Saheliya managed to distribute our vouchers to their service users and therefore, we have decided to continue working with them to benefit the minority women who are in need of not only a meal but also social support.
2. Central Edinburgh Mosque has also approached us to see if we can support them in helping the needy in the Edinburgh Muslim community.  We have decided to give them vouchers on an adhoc basis for now.
3. On Friday 21/2/14, we had our first fund raising drive - a bake sale.  Being our first, we have had a few challenges and learning points to consider but overall, we are really pleased with the results.  We were able to raise £171.84 with the help of so many people.  So we would like to thank the following people/organisations:
1. Central Edinburgh Mosque for letting us use their venue for the bake sale.
2. The excellent bakers who contributed so many delicious cakes and biscuits.  You all were amazing!
3. The volunteers who helped out at the stall.  A special shout out for our young helpers - Ben and Anna Gray.  Ben especially asked if he could get his own stall next time.
4. The customers - without your buying the cakes, we wouldn't have had been able to raise the money.
5. Representatives from Bethany Trust and One Parent Families who came to support us.  We are hoping to be able to plan for events which can involve our partners more in future.
4. We have a new website!!  Check it out at mealonme.webs.com.  We had help from Lena and her husband on it.  Thanks to both of them.
5. We also received two surveys back and are chasing the organisations if they can encourage more feedback.

Accounts and Donations:

Of course, as per usual, we present our accounts and donors for this month.  

MS	£10.00
SS	£  5.00
SA	£50.00

NM	£50.00
Bake Sale Profits	£171.84

Given previously we have £293.33 in the bank, we have a total of £580.17.  We also are distributing 60 vouchers worth £300/- for this month.  So, that leaves our bank balance of £280.17.  The amount is enough for us to issue out vouchers for another month but we are in sore need of your donations to keep this project going.  So, we appeal to you for donations.  Please go to our donation page on our website if you wish to find out how to donate.  Any amount is welcome!

Thank you all for your much needed support.  

Yours truly,

MoM team