Guest column: Sam Jones of Tunafish Media on why more businesses should get involved with their communities
As Volunteers’ Week comes to an end, the founder of the fast-growing marketing and media agency talks about why he set up a regular soup kitchen for the homeless.
The Manchester-based content marketing and media production agency, which won TheBusinessDesk’s 2017 Masters Awards Contributing to the Community award, was founded with the ethos of “producing thought-provoking and innovative work, creating an environment where staff can flourish and give back to the local community”.
When we started Tunafish in 2011 at the age of 22, the three of us had already done a lot of volunteering as individuals and we felt that contributing to the local community was something that we wanted to put at the heart of our business.
Sam Jones, Tunafish Media
We initially started by donating some equity to Forever Manchester- a charity that we all know and love, which means they get a percentage of our profits each year to help support over 2,000 community groups in the North West.
As we’ve grown we’ve then actively encouraged staff to look to contribute in a way that suits them and we give them the tools to support that.
We’ve done various events and volunteering for a couple of different charities and we’ve also got involved with business support groups such as Pro Manchester and JCI.
A couple of years ago, with a few friends, we also set-up a homeless soup kitchen in Manchester, called “Not Just Soup”, the twist being that the food is provided fresh from local restaurants.
As the food is great we get a large number of homeless people and due to this we’ve also partnered with an amazing charity called Coffee4Craig, which provide further support in a variety of ways and St. John’s Ambulance are there for any medical needs too.
Not Just Soup has provided over 20,000 meals so far from a host of restaurants including Hawksmoor, Neighbourhood and Australasia.
I guess as a business we just want to feel like we’re doing our bit and helping out where we can. This is something that we plan to continue as we carry on growing.
We also happen to be in a city where loads of businesses are doing truly inspiring things in the community and we’re proud of any small contribution we can make that will help others.
