From Sep’23 – Apr’24, Sam (the son of an Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust staff member), gave up 10 of his Sunday mornings to run a homemade cakes stall at South Oxford Farmers’ and Community Market as a way to say thank you to Oxford Health Charity.

He chose to tie in his fundraising with the requirements of his Silver Duke of Edinburgh Award (DofE), as his bake sales met the criteria for both the Volunteering and Skills categories.

                     

Sam explains:

“I am doing the cake stall as part of my Silver Duke of Edinburgh Award. I am volunteering my time to raise money for Oxford Health Charity and it also combines with my skills element of DofE which is baking!... The reason I chose the charity is that they support my mum's team who work at the JR.” *

Customers were met with a delicious array of homemade sponges, cupcakes and traybakes on Sam’s stall each fortnight – ranging from lemon drizzle, ginger and carrot cake, through to chocolate, vanilla and orange cupcakes, and cheesy biscuits! His festive treats proved to be especially popular.😊

   

The charity team were pleased to be able to support Sam in his fundraising, providing an Oxford Health Charity T shirt for him to wear and a card reader for payments, along with a bespoke poster for advertising his events and charity leaflets to offer customers.

After completing his very successful set of bake sales Sam was proud to report that, not only had he learned a variety of new baking and cake decorating skills, as well as met the criteria for both DofE modules, but he’d also smashed his fundraising target of £500 – instead raising an amazing £617.47!

He has decided to put these funds towards our 'Where the Need is Greatest' appeal, so that they will benefit and support projects which will enhance the experience of patients, carers and staff across the Trust. Speaking to the charity team after his last sale, Sam commented:

“I enjoyed raising money for a really good cause and talking to people about the charity. My favourite cake was definitely the carrot cake!”

We would like to say a HUGE thank you to Sam for all his time and effort – particularly for persevering with his outdoor stall over the autumn/winter period, when the ‘arctic weather conditions’ kept many customers at home! His support for Oxford Health Charity will help us, in turn, to support many others across Oxford Health.

And a last word from Sam’s Mum:

“This was a great experience for Sam – he had to get his Level 2 Food Handling Certificate and public liability insurance to undertake the cake stall…and the cakes he baked were fantastic. My team is hugely grateful for the funding we were given from the charity to support our ‘kitbags’ and so I was really pleased Sam chose Oxford Health Charity as his charity.”

* Find out more about how Oxford Health Charity funding supported the Emergency Department Psychiatric Service as they developed their kitbag programme for patients: https://www.oxfordhealth.charity/news/new-edps-kitbags

If any teams across Oxford Health would like to apply for charity funding to support an upcoming project, details of required project criteria, and our new quarterly funding request process, can be found here. Our Spring funding request window is now closed but Summer submissions can be made from 1st July (the request period will remain open for 4-6 weeks), with further opportunities following in October and January.