Yakubu
VOLUNTEERING: FARESHARE GREATER MANCHESTER
The start of modern-day recycling in the UK can be traced back to 1970 when 23-year-old student Gary Anderson entered a design competition held by the Container Corporation of America to create a symbol for recycled paper. Since then, the total number of Recycling companies in Europe has grown to 30,220 with Poland, Italy, and Romania regions having a 42.12% market share in the total European recycling industry. (Top 50 Largest Recycling Companies Europe • BoldData • Company Data, n.d.).
This blog series will feature weekly updates (episodes) on how a small charity named ‘Emerge’ alongside its subsidiaries; Touchwood and Fareshare have incredibly for 25 years turned trash into beauty- literally!
WEEK 1: INTRO TO TRASH
Dear Diary, we finally got introduced to the Emerge team (Lucy, Liz and John), the latter of who summarized their work simply as “...Putting the right waste in the right bin”. The quote stuck as it summarized week one with each member of our team trying to figure out which ‘bin’ our ideas fit in. Sarah, moderating both ends of the meeting, guided in deciphering the three main ethos the company stands for;
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Green: Saving food from going to waste through intelligent initiatives
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Job Provision/ Volunteering: Assisting through the tough economy and times
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Social: Making their messaging relatable to the target audience captured in the brief.
Understanding that Emerge is all about environmental awareness, developing green skills, and being an environmental educator, the idea of ‘deciding to eat or heat' meant intentionally making a change. At the end of the meeting, we understood each of us had to choose one objective from the brief to stick with throughout the placement; Fareshare, Touchwood or Emerge. That said, a more commercialized opportunity exists with Touchwood, requesting more documentary type of videos preferably short, punchy and compelling. We ended the week with a schedule for a physical meeting, Wednesday the 22nd of June to formally introduce us to the raw untapped trash.
WEEK 2: TRASH TO BEAUTY
Dear Diary, in 2020 the UK generated around 4.5 million tonnes of waste wood. Around 90% of this was processed by the high-volume wood recycling industry into biomass for power stations, composite sheets like MDF, animal bedding, etc. Although it’s great to see how far recycling in this country has come in recent decades, we can however do even better (NCWRP, 2021).
Researching further into similar companies doing the same i.e. competitors helped shed better light on the social media platforms being utilized by them (Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram) with their strongest social platforms as Emerge (Facebook), Fareshare (Twitter) and Touchwood still weak all round. The inconsistency of posts on their channels clearly point to opportunities where we could develop comprehensive social strategies to ensure they set goals are achieved and their keywords rank higher on SERPs.
The next agenda to perfect how to pitch/ execute will occur after the meeting on the 22nd of June. In the time being, however, a couple of ideas were pitched to our supervisor, who graciously advised us to take a closer look on how to stay on-brief and not derail trying to be overly creative with the brief. Some competitors identified include The wood shack, Community wood recycling etc. As we look forward to our visit in a few days, we also eagerly can’t wait to be a part of such an incredible project turning trash to beauty!
WEEK 3: VISIT TO EMERGE HQ
Our planned visit was everything and more! We met with Liz and Lucy who gave us a private tour of the company. During our tour, Lucy emphasized on the importance of our contribution to Emerge; explaining how COVID had greatly dented the volunteering arm of the business and how it’s utmost priority to resuscitate.
After the tour, we discussed extensively with the client on opportunities for the business, current realities on site and their expectations from this collaboration. The next step, which is pitching, was decided based on the client's availability for the 6th of July.
In preparation for the pitch, team Emerge mentioned few campaigns they’d like us to consider in addition to growing volunteering opportunities across;
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One Manchester Green Jobs Big Housing Project done in partnership with Charity Aid Fund (CAF).
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WE Project ie Waste Electrical Recycling to help harness viable opportunities
Other topics worthy of mention also included the price list for Touchwood bespoke products, incentives for volunteering, social media marketing, overhauling their website, google analytics, the average number of volunteers needed etc.
We thought it best to ‘emerge’ ourselves in the experience and so we offered to participate as volunteers for a whole day and set up a TikTok account for them! We are all super excited and can’t wait to pitch one idea each for Touchwood, Fareshare & Emerge. Until then, I’d simply enjoy the box of ice cream given to us for visiting!
WEEK 4: VOLUNTEERING AT EMERGE
To get indepth research on the true complexities of Emerge which mere words couldn’t capture; we decided collectively to volunteer for a whole day at the center. Augustina and I learned the basics by discussing with volunteers, workers at Fareshare and even accompanying the delivery vans to food banks and a school to experience that aspect of the organization- one thing was evident throughout- Emerge is contributing and changing lives of so many people and families- a very noble cause we are proud to be a part of.
As discussed in previous weeks, volunteers are a major part of the success stories as without the presence of people to assist, the system will automatically be crippled. On the other side of things though, with the average ages of the volunteers we worked with being 25 - 64 years with 98% of volunteers being white, 1.8% black, and 0.2 Asian- the question then remained how to get more volunteers within this unrepresented BAME group involved in such an impactful course.
Another pertinent gap/ problem our time there exposed us to was the disparity between the rising cost of living where people can hardly afford to feed as opposed to the high wastage of food with over 1 thousand tonnes sent to landfills daily. These two points clearly became imminent to pitch to the client. As volunteers, we had access to so much food, fruits, flowers etc with close expiration dates as they couldn't get distributed quickly enough.
Question now is, could the free food be enough incentives to attract new volunteers?
We’d have to find out *fingers crossed*
WEEK 5: PITCHING AND A THOUSAND INCREDIBLE IDEAS!
Dear Diary, the pitching date had us making Sarah proud with our out-of-the-box ideas, she would have been super proud of her girls!
After the pitching, we all had directions agreed upon by Lucy and Liz, both of whom also expressed their happiness and gratitude towards the incredibly kickass ideas! I pitched both ideas on diversity by attracting new BAME (Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic) volunteers and also the other idea on the topical issue of the contradictory state of food in the UK and how raising the right PR awareness in phases could attract more conversations/ volunteers for the center and the LOVED the latter!!
The big hoops ahead now involve figuring out the ethics, PPM, and Risk assessment.
So, wish me luck!
WEEK 7: ETHICS, CRAFTS, AND BOOTCAMP
The idea was to use dark photography to bring the meals to life and the clients were happy with what we had pitched. Albeit the drastic change from the fruit lapse to full-blown own meal preparations as requested by the clients, the show still had to go on. The main question was how to achieve everything smoothly with the introduction of newer elements to the plan. We now had to prepare meals, a source for chefs, create a menu, get it approved and cross-checked with what was available at the warehouse, find a location for the shoot, check everybody’s schedules, create a makeshift studio etc.
The backdrop ordered from amazon had arrived and after setting it up and in-depth research on how to control the lighting to achieve the dark food theme and emotions in the video, I figured there was something missing. I found this video online and immediately knew she had the missing piece to bring it all together. Going to Sainsbury, creating a makeshift studio from used & about-to-be recycled cardboard boxes, scissors and sticky black papers - craftsmanship 101 was no easy feat! Having minimum experience with food photo/videography also didn't help but we were determined to make it work.
The next phase included sending the list of meals for prep and getting approvals whilst ensuring all aspects of the ethics were captured and also sorted ahead of the shoot.
Setting up a bootcamp at home definitely helped (story for another week) lol.
WEEK 6: IDEA CHANGE, PANIC ATTACK AND MY LAST 2 BRAIN CELLS!
Dear diary, my last 2 brain cells had a panic attack, quit, and left my head empty! lol
Long story short, upon Sarah’s approval of my PPM, feedback was given by the client, providing a larger scope and a better understanding of their operational side of things and how that could play in the bigger picture. The concept of the fruit rot was changed to reflect the fruit wastage stage of things rather than the former which was incredible.
The new idea involved getting chefs to prepare meals, capturing the array of food available for redistribution at Fareshare, especially shortly dated produce like vegetables, milk, meat, tomatoes etc. The plan still remained the same; get more volunteers in by showing and depicting the impact every volunteer has in reducing food wastage by getting them to the families in need. The theme of the video still remained as dark and emotional to get the message across with beautifully made dishes by incredible chefs.
Luckily, we found two - Chef Marek (from Redditch) and Chef Josh (from Manchester).
Time to start planning!
WEEK 8: SHOOTING AND UNLEASHING INNER CREATIVITY!
Week 8 was a hectic week. In total, I had 8 shoots (3 of mine and 5 of others) but it was fun as well! We had gotten the equipment earlier than the initially stipulated 14 days margin- to set up and have a dry run on how things looked on camera, the week before. The first shoot, involving the chef from out of town - Marek- was very exciting and challenging at the same time. The crew was made up of Olivine and Hauwa.
The second shoot was at Emerge Hq with Lucy and Liz. Then a couple of B rolls of volunteers at Fareshare and consent forms signing. Our main challenges on this shoot were LOUD seagulls who wanted to be on the shoot so bad, heavy equipment causing noise whilst filming as it is a warehouse- and also, converting a warehouse into a makeshift studio as well- whilst trying to keep it as natural as possible to meet TV station standards and its fine line. The crew was made up of Sujith, Augustina, and Hauwa.
The third shoot with the other chef, Joshua - was a bust lol. He was called into work at the last minute and we were left by ourselves to unleash our ‘inner chefs’ so the clients don't end up disappointed. We had sent a list to them and intended to uphold our end of the bargain as they had helped to provide part of the ingredients for the meals from the warehouse. Needless to say, we had to improvise and use our creativity- and Youtube to unleash our undiscovered skills. The crew was made up of Aidan, Augustina, and Hauwa.
At the end of the week, we had all learnt something new by helping each other and coming up with creative ways of navigating hurdles. Now the race against time begins with the edit and publications on our priority lists with such little time to go. Let the countdown begin.
![20220819075229-4f2f9a04d9.[gif-2-mp4.com].gif](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/7313fd_8a2cb7afca6848f29bac28c5bd7ba299~mv2.gif)
WEEK 9: EDITING
Officially counting down to the last days of my program has been both exciting and scary. With little time left to edit and place everything together, including the client's feedback on things makes the whole experience challenging- but in a good way.
In total, I had created more than 10 videos for all available social channels available to them - Website, Youtube, TikTok, Instagram (post and reels) as well as Twitter.
The food campaign posed the most challenging at the post-editing stage but at last, looked very well done, with different versions of the video created to target different audiences according to each platform. One was fast-paced with texts and fast music for the Instagram reels to ensure the audience is captivated within seconds. Whilst the other is slower, calmer, and mature- created for the Website, Youtube, and Twitter audience to raise awareness for the #SaveFood campaign which was explained in full in the second video by Liz to be used for advertorial purposes.
The clients assigned us, people, within the organization to help with access to their social media accounts to upload the necessary footages in the coming week which we look forward to!😊
WEEK 10: PUBLICATION
My experience at Fareshare taught me a very humbling perspective to things; 'people are like water, we flow to each other and away from each other, but the impact left by the waves or splashes made, will always leave a reminder on you.'
A year flew by so fast and as we were in class bidding Sarah farewell; we all came together to get life lessons from her on Freelancing and handling our taxes. No one can deny it wasn't emotional to watch the last year pass by so fast and how much this little time shared has had an impact on us all.
The videos were presented to the clients who all loved it, which is unarguably one of the best feelings in the world seeing them dance excitedly to your videos, inviting more and more people to watch it at their office! I had wished I could freeze time to replay that moment over and over but alas, this is reality and something better was offered - a big hug and an offer to keep helping with videos which I humbly accepted!
As we post our videos, prepare our final presentations on what we have learned, and smile at Sarah in our group picture together- it's sad to think this might be the last time some of us would ever see each other again as most will go on to do great things and change the world in their own ways- and not even attend graduation.
I am glad we all got to share this delicate moment together and even elated we had each other through it all.
I'd miss The Rejects, crazy deadlines & the moo-ing cat.
To our mentor, Sarah, I am glad it was you. ❤️
WEEK 11: POST PERFORMANCE & REFLECTION
The first sets of posts have now been uploaded to their social media channels (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and IG story). With the social media calendar provided to the clients to suffice for August, September and October consisting of almost 15 videos and 3 newsletters, and many more infographics- all using the same #savefood to drive conversation and awareness to the campaign- it is safe to assume, albeit early, that this will no doubt convert to getting volunteers in for Fareshare Greater Manchester.
The next posts have been scheduled to go up in the coming days and weeks on several platforms created to serve this purpose, including TikTok. The PR aspect of things would also be used, in the form of newsletters on email campaigns to help get the buzz going, since unfortunately, the use of press, is temporarily not an option as it conflicts with a current campaign being pushed to raise awareness for school kids returning back to school and the high cost of things in Greater Manchester since the pandemic.
In retrospect, this has been a successful campaign given our limited resources.
References
Green Employment and Skills | One Manchester. (n.d.). www.onemanchester.co.uk. Retrieved June 27, 2022, from https://www.onemanchester.co.uk/green
Top 50 largest Recycling companies Europe • BoldData • Company Data. (n.d.). BoldData. Retrieved June 19, 2022, from https://bolddata.nl/en/companies/europe/recycling-companies-europe/
NCWRP. (2021, May 10). Our environmental impact - Community Wood Recycling. https://communitywoodrecycling.org.uk/what-we-do/our-environmental-impact/
Dark Food Photography - SHOOTING and EDITING. (n.d.). Www.youtube.com.
Retrieved August 1, 2022, from https://youtu.be/qX_Gy69U41I