Profit for Purpose

Scoop and Scales was born from a group of individuals passionate about trying to improve the community in which we live.  Our primary aim is to reduce single use packaging and to encourage people to shop more thoughtfully, but as a co-operative we believe in wider ethical values of social responsibility and caring for other. As such we have a shared vision of supporting local community charities and actions spreading kindness as we grow – Profit for Purpose.

In February 2023 we formed a Profit for Purpose Committee, which is made up of directors and members of the cooperative.

Here’s what we have done so far: 

What we have done 

June 2023

Our new Pay It Forward Board, and the initial £50 worth of donation tickets posted to it, were made possible by our Profit for Purpose fund (total £78). We are proud to offer a little help for those in our community short on funds. We hope this board may be a step in fostering a spirit of goodwill, so that everyone feels they can give and take freely.

To illustrate the project

June 2023

In June we organised a trip to RHS Bridgewater. We subsidised the trip and offered free places thanks to £106 from profit for purpose.

May 2023

Angel at my Table is a brilliant local initiative based at St Michael’s Church. They run a surplus food cafe on Thursday – Saturday. We were pleased to donate items worth £22 to the cause.

May 2023

Macclesfield Bikeathon 2023 was all in a great cause for Just Drop-In charity. We were pleased to donate sweets and fruit worth £35 for the feed station.
The event was set up by AllGood Cycling and receiving local support from Trek Bicycle Wilmslow Macclesfield Town Council

May 2023

They work in partnership with local frontline agencies to provide emergency food support to people. You can donate to the foodbank in Scoop and Scales shop.
We donated tinned items worth £83.

April 2023

For our first eco film night, we gave an £80 donation to Cinemac for allowing us to show the film.

March 2023

We have invested £562 to have our very own Carbon Literacy Course developed and accredited.

We will run the first course in November, with free places for all participants.

March 2023

We were able to support The One Project with £390 for new bins to sort Terracyle at the Hive.

Find Out more about all they do here: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100071445704201

March 2023

We gave the Macclesfield Community Tree Nursery a £384 grant. The Macclesfield Community Tree Nursery is a group of volunteers that grow trees from seed to help combat climate change and encourage wildlife, with trees given away and planted free of charge. The grant money has been used to fund the purchase of timber and metal mesh to build rodent proof growing frames, to buy topsoil for their raised beds, to pay for allotment fees, and to help pay for volunteer insurance. Their seedlings and saplings can be found growing at the Knowsley road allotments, on Byrons lane, at the Rossendale Trust, and in the town centre.

rodent frames and seedlings

February 2023

Cre8 do many great things locally. One is to run their grocery. This prevents hundreds of bags of food going to waste each week. We donated items worth £147.

February 2023

Angel at my Table is a brilliant local initiative based at St Michael’s Church. They run a surplus food cafe on Thursday – Saturday. We were pleased to donate items worth £125 to the cause.

Aug - Dec 2022

Scoop and Scales have been supported by Macclesfield Town Council to develop an eco-hub in Macc in 2023. The space, which is next to the shop, was funded by £151 of our resource in 2022.

Did you know? We have already held 27 public events in this space.

November 2022 and August 2023

St Peter’s is a welcoming church on Windmill Street in Macc. They have signed up to provide a warm space for people to come during November and December. We have donated 2 sacks of flour worth £31 so they can bake bread to go with the soup they are giving away.

November 2022

Ash Grove Primary Academy is based on the Moss Estate in Macc. They run a breakfast club for pupils each morning. We donated bran flakes and organic porridge oats worth £47 to them.

November 2022

The Silklife Foodbank is run by Silklife. They work in partnership with local frontline agencies to provide emergency food support to people. You can donate to the foodbank in Scoop and Scales shop.
We donated tinned items worth £86.

November 2022

The Core Pantry is a member-based scheme where members pay a small weekly subscription and in return they can choose good value food from a range including chilled goods, fresh and tinned products as well as a small range of household items. They run from the Church of the Resurrection at Upton Priory.
We donated tinned items worth £86.

November 2022

The nurses at Macclesfield Hospital’s ICU department have been running a raffle to raise funds and morale. We donated a hamper as a prize, worth £15.50.

November 2022

Suso are a brilliant organisation based at the Old Sunday School. Suso aim to change the lives of people with learning disabilities in Cheshire East. They also kindly allowed us to use their meeting room for our AGM. We have made a £50 donation as a thank you for this.

October 2022

we were delighted to contribute a couple of things on the wish list for Macclesfield Community Tree Nursery. We have purchased £48 worth of top soil and peat free compost for use in their new raised based at the Knowsley Road allotments and £50 of vouchers for Prestbury Garden Centre

September 2022

Angel at my Table is a brilliant local initiative based at St Michael’s Church. They run a surplus food cafe on Thursday – Saturday. We were pleased to donate items worth £27 to the cause.

August 2022

Becca Smith, a local artist and activist has been selling Save Danes Moss related items to raise awareness and funds for the campaign. To date we have sold £285 of items in the shop and have forgone our cut (worth £71).
You can donate to the campaign here

May 2022

Thanks to Nicky, who made loads of amazing knitted sunflowers.
We sold these in the shop and were delighted to raise £206 for the Ukrain Crisis Appeal of the British Red Cross.

February 2022

We have purchased another batch of litter picking equipment – with 15 new pickers arriving in store, for people to borrow as they wish.

We invested £158 in these.

September 2021

The amount of Terracycle being collected from the shop has grown massively (thanks to our customers!). To help Kate and her team of volunteers we have purchased a unit for £20 which allows the streams to be separated easily.

Summer 2021

Macclesfield Repair Cafe was developed by a group of enthusiastic repairers. The first repair cafe took place in September 2021.

Scoop and Scales were pleased to be able to support the Repair Cafe with £498 for rent, insurance, and a PAT testing course.

February 2021

Bollington based Inland Sea ran a Kickstarter to raise money to create t-shirts made from fabric containing seaweed fibre and invest in seaweed farms in the UK.

We were delighted to help them reach their target by purchasing a corporate package for £900.

January 2021

Thanks to the generosity of our customers, we were able to raise £246 to buy goods for these amazing hampers for staff at Macclesfield Hospital.

September - November 2020

Macclesfield Parish Scouts and Guides have been fundraising for some vital repair work at their Station Street hut. We were able make a donation of £120 as part of their buy a brick fund. 

May - August 2020 - donation to the Hope Centre and Project Grow at Cre8 

The Hope Centre and Project Grow at Cre8 have joined forces to cook, freeze and deliver healthy meals to local communities during the Coronavirus lockdown.

We ordered some lentils, pulses and pasta (costing £50) to donate to this worthy cause as part of our seventh buying cycle.

We have also made cash donations as a re-investment of our (currently modest!) profits.

Sales of our reusable face masks have also generated over £125 in donations.

 

Katy and the Project Grow Team

April and May 2020 – maintenance at the Scout Hut 

It has been great to lend a hand at Macclesfield Parish Scouts and Guides Hut with some grounds/building maintenance (we have a talented gardener in our midst!)  to repay their generosity in lending us the building for food weighing and scooping pre-distribution during recent challenging times. We also made a donation of £30. 

April 2020 - foodbank donation

Our sixth buying cycle in April saw us move to a model of delivering orders for our members. Thanks to their generous donations, we are proud to have been able to support Silklife Foodbank with a selection of items that can be distributed throughout the area as part of their work.  

Foodbank donations

April 2020 - Supporting local NHS staff 

In recent challenging times of corona virus, we were delighted to be able to donate hair and body care products worth £100 (whilst reusing packaging!) to the wonderful staff at Macclesfield Hospital so they can change out of uniform and wash at the hospital at the end of shifts.  One of our talented officers is also currently very busy cutting and sewing scrubs  for donation to the hospital for staff to wear whilst at work. 

Cosmetics for NHS heroes

2019

The Hope Centre was the venue for our early collection events and meetings. From buying cycles 3,4,7 and our early pop ups events, we were able to donate £463.

Watch this space for more as we grow…. Together we are stronger.