Salvation Army partners with The Orchard Trust

Parents, carers and visitors to The Orchard Trust’s care home in Coleford and its Learning Centre & Smallholding in Lydbrook in the Forest of Dean, will be able to turn clothes into chicken coops, socks into swings, and hats into herbs from this week following the installation of two new Salvation Army Trading Company Ltd (SATCoL) clothes recycling banks.

Donations of unwanted clothes, shoes and textile items to the charity’s newly installed banks at its sites in Upper Stowfield and Coleford, will help to raise money to pay for a new sensory garden at the residents’ care home; and also new chicken houses, a wheelchair swing, and improved vehicular and wheelchair access at the Smallholding & Learning Centre.  It will also dramatically reduce landfill while raising valuable funds for the work of The Salvation Army. 

Set up as a partnership with the Salvation Army Trading Company Ltd (SATCoL) the banks are capable of collecting a combined total of up to 300 kilos of textiles, and for every tonne collected The Orchard Trust will raise funds to spend on resources for its care home and Learning Centre.

Julian Sharpe, area representative at SATCoL, said: “It’s great to have The Orchard Trust on board.  Their banks provide an easy way to recycle unwanted clothes while providing valuable support to both The Salvation Army and The Orchard Trust.

“For every tonne of textiles that we are able to reuse or recycle we prevent seven tonnes of harmful CO2 emissions, and we significantly reduce the amount of unnecessary waste sent to landfill.  Working together with visitors to the Learning Centre and Smallholding in particular, we can make a real difference to the environment, to The Orchard Trust and to causes funded by The Salvation Army,” said Mr Sharpe.

Based in the Forest of Dean, The Orchard Trust is an Independent Registered Charity, which provides a wide range of integrated services to meet the needs of people with learning disabilities in Gloucestershire and the surrounding areas. 

Its care home in Coleford provides a friendly environment for people with a range of learning disabilities, sensory issues and autism spectrum conditions, while its Learning Centre in the Forest of Dean provides a vibrant and stimulating educational provision for its residents as well as other local care organisations that use the site and its facilities.

Gareth Jones, CEO of The Orchard Trust, said: “The jointly branded clothes banks give us a great way to raise money from something that might otherwise end up in a bin or a bag in the loft.  With the banks now in place we can encourage visitors to donate unwanted clothes keeping textiles away from landfill while helping us to raise valuable money for the new sensory garden at our care home in Coleford and the new chicken houses, wheelchair swing, and improved access at our Smallholding & Learning Centre in Lydbrook.  We’re hoping to get everyone behind the scheme and look forward to filling both banks as soon as possible so that we can create an amazing sensory garden for our residents.”

The Orchard Trust’s new sensory garden at its Seven Oaks care home in Coleford will include a selection of sensory plants including sunflowers, hostas, heather, mint, lavender, thyme, chives, chicory, spearmint, artichoke, bamboo, poppy, sweetcorn, fountain grass, sage, fennel, walnut tree, mulberry bush and weeping willow.

Over the last five years alone, SATCoL’s re-use and recycling initiatives (which include over 200 charity shops, 6500 clothing banks and a door-to-door collection service) raised £39.5 million for The Salvation Army, contributing to its valuable social welfare work. This has helped fund homelessness and addiction services, care for older people, help at emergency incidents, support for adult victims of human trafficking in England and Wales, a Family Tracing Service and much, much more.

For more information about SATCoL and its clothes banks, visit here  

For more information on The Orchard Trust visit here