A VAST Press Release
£100K of tableware for 100 Years of Stoke-on-Trent
Over 100 charities, voluntary organisations, and community groups across Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire have benefitted from the enormous generosity of local ceramics production company, Steelite International.
Following the success of 2024’s event, which saw 7,500 items distributed, this year’s Totally Stoked Giveaway was over three times the size and spanned two days to share the mammoth donation with the local voluntary sector.
The brand-new pottery will help voluntary, community, and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations to deliver a range of services to benefit local communities and improve the lives of local people, with a huge variety of organisations taking part, including the Breastfeeding Network, who planned to use their new tableware for their National Breastfeeding Week teddy bears picnic celebrations. The almost 29,000 items donated will furnish tables at lunch clubs, create craft projects, and help set the stage for community theatre companies, alongside many other uses.
Mission: Giveaway
Representatives from over 100 local not-for-profit organisations were able to see the items available and take what they wanted from the Dudson Centre courtyard. Visitors to the centre were supported by VAST staff and volunteers, including staff from Steelite, from arrival, from choosing what they needed to loading stock onto trolleys and into their waiting vehicles to take it away.
When the initial donation of around 11 tonnes of plates, bowls, mugs, cups, and more, worth approximately £100,000, began to run low on day one, Steelite were already arranging another delivery to arrive for day two of the giveaway!
The event, always very popular and extremely busy, was again a huge success and received a lot of positive feedback from the local voluntary organisations who benefitted from the donation.
Re-form Heritage, the heritage charity that manages Middleport Pottery, said:
“Everything worked fantastically, huge thanks to the volunteers doing the hard labour of shifting ware and trollies.”
Adele from Kinetic Heights CIC said:
“It was incredibly efficient and clearly organised so well! The volunteers at VAST are always so friendly and lovely, TG, Alice & Iris helped us out today and deserve a shout out!”
A Collaboration for the ages
The VAST-Steelite collaboration that brings the hugely popular initiative to life has run over a number of years and is always well received by VAST’s membership. In 2024, 47 voluntary sector organisations benefitted from the donation. This year’s event matched that in less than half a day!
It’s not just VAST’s work that makes events like this come together, it takes weeks of planning, cross-sector collaboration, and community spirit. Local retailers and organisations received a certificate of thanks for their support in loaning trolleys, baskets, and even wheelbarrows to get stock to and from the courtyard.
While all of this was going on, Affordable Food Stoke popped in to pick up some free stock for their community events, before they even got their share of the Steelite haul, they asked for some help in donating several crates of bread, which was swiftly distributed – and that’s what Totally Stoked is all about: communities giving together!
Natalie Hawkins, Support and Volunteering Projects Manager said:
“We knew that the small trolleys and sack trucks we’d normally use weren’t going to do the job, but we also knew that we could count on our neighbours and community for support. Thank you to Pak Foods, B&Q, Emmaus North Staffs, and Paula at Birches Head Get Growing. And thank you to Rhianna and Adele for lending a hand this morning when they got here early!”
Faye Angus, Communications and Content Manager said:
“We would like to say a heartfelt ‘thank you’ to Steelite for such a generous donation! £100,000 worth of stock will make an enormous difference to local voluntary and community groups across the city, and for decades to come.
“We were also thrilled to have Matt from BBC Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent join us too – their short film and radio piece was such a great opportunity to reach more community groups, meaning that they could also benefit.
“And ultimately, that’s what we want to do; support the incredible VCSE sector in and around Stoke-on-Trent, in absolutely any way we can!”
