During this festive period, everyone is busy with their families and loved ones. It is, after all, the time of merriment, cheer and goodwill to all men. It is extremely easy, during this somewhat busy period to forget those charities who work tirelessly all year round to help those less fortunate than ourselves, those who help and support some of our most vulnerable members of the Fylde coast community by providing essential items to help meet their basic human needs.
Charities such as Wes’ Café, Community Larder and Helping Hearts Fylde serve the surrounding community every day, week-in, week-out throughout the year and provide additional support during the difficult Christmas and New Year season. For many of us, this is a time of celebration and happiness, however, for those families and individuals most in need, this can be a time of worry and anxiety.
In 2024, South Fylde’s Group Charity Steward David Jenkinson reached out to Paul Caddy, Chairman of Wes Café and Community Larder, based in St Annes to see how the group could help with their cause. The café is a very special community based charity that provides a safe place for people to come together to socialise, enjoy a hot meal and receive donated food and essential toiletries to help them get by. A new creative community programme supported by Church Road Methodist Church and Fylde Council also offers the opportunity to learn new skills such as art, cooking on a budget, IT proficiency and interview techniques to help further enrich peoples’ lives and build better futures. David was in awe at the fantastic work, help, support and advice the charity offers and was confident the South Fylde Group would be keen to offer assistance where they could.
David also made contact with Andrew Mills, Chairman of Helping Hearts Fylde, based at the New Life Community Centre. Helping Hearts have been running since 2020, supporting the local Fylde coast community. Similar to Wes’ Cafe, Helping Hearts is a community-focused charity supporting local people who are in need. They offer support for alleviating poverty, temporary accommodation, counselling and many in areas of essential advice, support and guidance. Helping Hearts will also signpost individuals to external agencies. The charity offers a hot meal, food bank, baby essentials and even a pet food bank two days a week (Wednesday and Thursday) Helping Hearts are a huge team who proudly serve and support a large ever-growing local community who may struggle year-round, but often find the festive season a particularly challenging time.
Fast forward one year and David said how he wanted to offer even more support than the magnificent £2400 he and his team raised in 2024 and set himself a target of £4000 for 2025 and with his team which included deputy group charity steward, Jordan Brown and group membership officer, Jon Hardman, it is phenomenal to report that, not only they have met their target, but they have exceeded it, offering even more support to both Wes’ Café and Helping Hearts Fylde. This began with a grant from the Masonic Charity Fund of £2750 offered to the South Fylde Group, additionally, they also received a donation of £500 from Tithebarn Lodge No 8446, which is especially significant as they returned their warrant on the 20 December and wanted to give something back to the group. Not only that, in addition there were individual donations meaning that the total cash amount reached more than £3300.
Notably, Jon Hardman has gone above and beyond with his contribution to this worthy cause. Firstly, he realised that for the charities in question, what they rely on most is food donations to feed and support their local communities. With this in mind, he came up with a unique and innovative way to apply his skillset as a professional photographer and videographer. He contacted local primary schools in the area and offered to film and photograph six nativity productions at five primary schools across the Fylde. These were: Ansdell Primary School, Lytham St Annes, Holy Family Catholic Primary, Warton, St Peters Catholic Primary, Lytham St Annes (two productions), Ingol Community Primary, Ingol, Preston and Newchurch St Mary’s, Pendle. Amazingly, Jon offered this outstanding service free of charge, with the premise being the parents donate to the foodbank appeal.
The nativities were professionally filmed using multiple cameras and audio equipment with the films being professionally edited with graphics, title screens and end credits. Cast photos were also taken, which were then sent out to parents for them to enjoy, keep and to cherish the memories made for years to come, perhaps, for some, the next generation of Masons. The response from the schools was extraordinary and it is clear that this will grow in both demand and popularity as Jon confesses to already having another three schools who have heard about what has been happening and want to be involved next year.
Jon admits that it was no easy feat and he called on the help of some fellow friends and professionals. These were: Dave Weatherley of Lakeland Films, who edited one of the productions for Jon. Mark Herrington of Mark Herrington Videography, who filmed and edited one of the productions. Anthony Horseman of Anthony Horseman Films, who filmed and edited one of the productions and Bro Marcin Misztal, who was kind enough to offer tripods and microphones to cope with the increased demand. All of these wonderful professionals donated their time, equipment and expertise for free in support of the food bank idea. Jon also added, with a wry smile, that with his group membership officer hat on – there are certainly some prospective Freemasons in the making there, which is fantastic. Raising money for charity, whilst always thinking about the recruitment drive.
David estimates that the value of the food donated from parents will exceed £1000 and all schools and contributors have received a personalised thank you letter. These were not the only food donations to be given for this wonderful cause; Lee Munro, caterer at the St Anne’s Palace also donated six turkey crowns to Wesley’s Café for their Christmas dinner. He does this every year and the team at Wesley’s cook the ‘customers’ a full traditional Christmas dinner with all the trimmings. If that wasn’t enough, David also contacted John Nicholls, who set his lodge, Ansdell Lodge No 3607 and Fairhaven Lodge 5076 a challenge of how much food they could bring in that last week of donating. It was impressive to witness the food pile grow and grow, to the point where it was a struggle to get through the entrance of the Palace. David estimated the food value to be approximately £600-700. David insisted that they be given a thanks for their incredible efforts.
Of course, the food once given must be transported to the relevant charities and so David, with the help of his deputy, Jordan Brown, was keen to ensure the food got the where it could help people the most. They distributed the donations evenly across the two chosen charities; Helping Hearts Fylde on Wednesday 17 December and Wesley’s Cafe and Community Larder on Thursday 18 December. David said, with a glint of happiness in his eye and a sense of pride in his voice, that there was so much food, we had to deliver it over two nights, we simply could not fit it all in our cars.
He went on to say that in total, each Charity has received approximately £850 worth of food, plus a £1650 cheque donation to support them in the New Year. The South Fylde Group Charity Team were conscious that each charity receives a lot of support in December ready for Christmas, but January and February are their toughest months, so the charities were both very grateful for a combination of food and cheques. The total value of food in addition to the monetary donations is approximately £5000, an outstanding donation. This will go a long way to helping those in need. Everyone should be more proud of those who have given their time, money or food to help this important cause.
David finished by commenting on the great work carried out by each charity saying that they are an amazing team who are incredibly proud to serve their local community. Each charity desperately relies on donations to help and support over 150 families and individuals who will rely on the food bank during those vital few days before Christmas. South Fylde Group made it their mission to supply Wes’ Café and Helping Hearts with enough produce for the charities to meet the huge local demand. It is clear to see that in 2025, as throughout history, by giving time, dedication, friendship and brotherly love, Masonic charities are at the heart of helping some of the most vulnerable in society, at a time when they need it the most.
