Public Affairs Committee (PA)
PA Committee meetings discuss how best to campaign, organise and promote awareness around matters that are important to WI members and mostly significantly around WI Resolutions. We also organise events that focus on promoting awareness around women and women's issues, WI resolutions, Fairtrade, etc, and also faith visits too to learn more about the many religions that others follow. The Committee also promotes awareness and campaigns around Climate Change. We produce a quarterly PA Memo to keep members uptodate with WI resolutions and campaigns. Do come along, our meetings are informal, and see what we do to decide for yourself if it’s a Committee you’d like to become involved with as we’d love to welcome more members onto the PA Committee.
We look forward to seeing you at PA Committee meetings or at the PA events.
Gwen Williams
Chair
Current members are: Gwen Williams (Chair), Jill Newell, Jan McLardy, Danielle Chatten, Pat Collison (Climate Ambassador), Val Simpson, Lesli Tunbridge (Climate Ambassador), Maggie Glavin (BoT) and Anne Ling(BoT)
If you would like to join us to find out more about the Committee then please email Gwen Williams - gwenwilliams55@googlemail.com
The next meetings of the PA Committee are on
11th July 2023 10am at Park Farm
My Wish Projects
Suffolk West Federation have been supporting My Wish Charity for a number years and during that time our members have made countless lap blankets for dementia patients, syringe driver bags and quilts for premature babies. You’ll find all the details about our latest project here.
ACWW
- look on MyWI for ACWW updates and information
Climate Ambassador
Lesli Tunbridge, Glemsford, is the lead SWFWI Climate Ambassador. Lesli is actively promoting the role and aims of the
SWFWI Climate Ambassadors throughout SWFWI - look out for Climate Change news and articles in the Hive, SWFWI website and on SWFWI Facebook.
Welcome to the PA Committee Memo
Want to know more about WI resolutions past and present? Unsure about how to get involved with campaigns? The PA Memo is here to help. This quarterly publication will give ideas for you and your WI, aiming to make resolutions accessible and more relevant. Then, whether you’ve organised a regular resolution update at your WI, a low-key event for members only or an event for the wider community, we’d love to hear about it! Let’s celebrate the wonderful work you do – share via The Hive, the Federation Office or the SWFWI Facebook page and website.
Events:
News:
Still Good Food - Saving Food Still Good To Eat
(Previously: Best Before Project BSE)
Based at:
4 Elseys Yard, Risbygate St, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, IP33 3AA
and
Freedom Church, Mill Road, Road,Great Barton, Suffolk, IP31 2RU
We at Still Good Food are a driven group of individuals from all walks of life, joined together by our passion for stopping food from being wasted when it is still perfectly good to eat and making sure it gets to people who will appreciate it, whether that's for environmental reasons or financial reasons.
We want to do our part to make the world a better place for all by reducing food waste and educating people about food labelling and making the most of what they have.
Businesses in Bury St Edmunds supporting Still Good Food include: Waitrose, Asda, Tesco Superstore and minis, Greggs, Muffin Break, The Bodhi Tree along with food and drink companies such as British Essentials.
https://www.stillgoodfood.org / Facebook
StillGoodF · Community
2016 Resolutions - Avoid food waste, address food poverty
One of the WI’s 2016 resolutions was “Avoid food waste, address food poverty” and, following the SWFWI’s April Resolution Evening’s meeting, the speakers around this resolution, Karen Cannard, The Rubbish Diet, and Ben Aldous, Deputy Manager of the Bury St Edmunds Sainsbury’s, met to discuss the store being involved with donating unsold food to local charities.
Discussions have taken a while to get an agreement but the PA Committee is very pleased to report that Sainsbury’s is now donating its unsold food to two Bury St Edmunds charities. As part of an initiative to eradicate its food waste, the supermarket has starting working with the addiction charity Focus12 and Bury Women’s Aid Centre (the Refuge). Clients at Focus12 receive a £25 weekly food allowance and the project, which began two months ago, has already saved if £400.
WI’s call “...on all supermarkets to sign up to a voluntary agreement to avoid food waste, thereby passing surplus food onto charities thus helping to address the issue of increasing food poverty in the UK” has made a positive start in Bury. It just proves what positive actions start from a WI resolution, enabling a discussion and from people talking with other.
Gwen Williams
Chair
PA Committee
2nd September 2016