Charities win King's Award for Voluntary Service

Big Breakfast Plus provide around 100 free breakfasts in Swindon every day

Two Wiltshire charities that provide valuable services for their communities have had their work recognised with a King's Award for Voluntary Service.

Big Breakfast Plus (BBP) in Swindon and Chalke Valley Stores (CVS) in Broad Chalke have both received the honour and will be invited to attend a garden party at Buckingham Palace next summer.

BBP serves hundreds of free breakfasts to those in need every week and CVS run a multi-purpose community hub that acts as a village shop, cafe and Post Office.

“Our volunteers are all amazing, committed, and work brilliantly in their teams and I am so proud that they have won this prestigious award,” said Charlotte Mannion, Big Breakfast Plus’s chair of trustees.

'Dedicated' volunteers

"The way our volunteers, in teams of 8-10 each day, work together would be the envy of many organisations. They show off all the aspects of ‘high performing’ teams all in a two-and-a-half-hour window day in and day out.”

Tony Patel, general manager at CVS, said: "We are incredibly lucky and grateful to have a dedicated group of volunteers - each person brings their own set of skills and they all make a difference and add to the sense of community spirit that is so unique to the HUB."

CVS was set up in a chapel building in response to the closing of the local village shop.

Over the past 10 years it has grown into a community hub for the village and provides a store and postal service.

Big Breakfast Plus is run almost entirely by volunteers and operates from the Pilgrim Centre in Swindon town centre seven-days-a-week from 07:30 to 09:00.

The services are available to anyone in the town who is homeless or hungry and there is no need to apply.

The King's Award for Voluntary Service is the equivalent of an MBE and winners are announced on the King's birthday every year.