‘The show must go on’ is a saying that’s particularly true in the charity sector. When an office move coincided with the pandemic for the Genesis Trust in Bath, Waste to Wonder stepped in to find and donate the furniture they needed to continue their essential work from home.

And when we say essential, we mean things like helping those in crisis, providing the Bath Foodbank service, and running Life Skills, a project that helps those recovering from addiction, abuse, and mental health problems get their lives back on track.

The Genesis Trust is a largely (but non-exclusively) Christian group who follow the imperative to ‘love thy neighbour’ to a tee.

In their own words, they ‘support disadvantaged and vulnerable people in the Bath area, provide compassionate help with their immediate needs, and journey with them as they gain confidence, learn new skills, overcome challenges and make choices to restore and rebuild their lives.’

But as a small, self-sufficient charity, its volunteers don’t run on good will alone. They need office equipment too!

The Genesis Trust were no exception to the turmoil brought by 2020, and like many of us, they found themselves having to vacate their head offices, limit projects, and adapt their Foodbank services to a new system of at-home delivery. 

The true challenge was remaining present and helpful to those needing it most, at a time when physical contact had to be strictly limited.

When Waste to Wonder found, allocated, and delivered desks and chairs, to volunteers’ homes, they were able to continue their valuable support over the phone and via Zoom. Volunteers could follow up food deliveries with a check up call, relay advice, and simply provide a much-needed chat to those in isolation.

In response to this work, Anthony Ward, Furniture Project Manager at Genesis, said:

“Thank you for all the help you and your clients have provided while we have been reorganising our head office and enabling members of our charity to work from home. The desks, pedestal units and chairs that have been donated to us have been invaluable, and have helped to enable us to continue to deliver the services we provide to the disadvantaged, vulnerable and homeless in and around Bath.”

The donated furniture went on to furnish new offices for the Genesis Trust, and surplus went to their shop to be sold.

The partnership between Waste to Wonder and The Genesis Trust is ongoing. If they have an urgent need, they come to us with a list of required items, and we’ll search through our warehouse stock to find them.

In the words of Vince Smith, Head of Operations at Waste to Wonder:

“We’ve been supporting the Genesis charity for around 2 years now. They’re a great self-sufficient local charity around Bath helping the homeless and vulnerable, where homelessness is really high. We have a great relationship with Anthony from Genesis who knows he can depend on waste to wonder to help with any furniture donations whenever possible.”

These donations are made from across all our partners and clients, including Nationwide, IBM, Pearsons, Network Rail, and Allianz.

We at Waste to Wonder help so many around the globe. But sometimes, the help that’s needed is right on your doorstep.To learn more about what we do or to discuss becoming a charity with us, visit us here.

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