A little over 3 months ago, on June 18th 2018, Tolly Boy launched their grassroots campaign “Spread the Joy with Toll Boy” to support African and Bangladeshi communities in the UK. A campaign which committed to offer prize donations to deserving community projects, helping them strive, thrive and flourish. From employability to healthy luncheons, from vocational training to caring for the elderly, twenty community groups came forward and registered their interest in this campaign, which promised to bring hope and joy to their local community. A campaign thoroughly supported by community groups, community businesses and media came to its culmination on the 18th of September when the top three winning groups were rewarded for their efforts.
84 days and 20,341 votes later, the winners of the Spread the Joy with Tolly Boy campaign were acknowledged during an awards ceremony at Wapping Youth Centre. The occasion was filled with heart-warming stories of the journey undertaken by community groups and appreciation for Tolly Boy who has partnered with their wider community & the projects that help to make their communities flourish.
Present at the event were the three winning community groups - Wapping Bangladesh Association, Nigerian Community of Waltham Forest (NICOWF) and Bangladesh Women’s Association, who were commended by Nicolas Hanson, Managing Director Westmill Foods, Chris Craig, Commercial Director Westmill Foods, Ricky Oberoi, Account Director Westmill Foods, and Steven Perry, Senior Brand Manager Tolly Boy.
NICOWF plans to use this funding to organise events in their community to highlight the essence of society and how everyone can contribute to shape the society one lives in. In a candid moment, Mr. Faniku, also shared how excited they were as a community to be in friendly rivalry with other charities to win the competition!
The second runner up was Bangladeshi Women’s Association who were awarded £2,500. Ms Amina Chowdhary from the charity said: “It is really challenging to convince people to come out of their comfort zone and try something new. People around us were using different brands of rice, but we tried convincing them to try Tolly Boy by telling them how Tolly Boy would help the community in return. The good thing was that not only were people convinced to participate but were also happy with the quality of Tolly Boy, making it their household favourite”. The group helps empowering not only women from the Bangladeshi community with education, training and employment, but also a variety of other communities. With the campaign money, they plan to provide additional classes for employment and training services. They will additionally provide practical office skills training to enable these women excel in their future jobs.
Talking about the journey, Senior Brand Manager of Tolly Boy Steven Perry said: “It was fantastic to see votes increase week by week and how community groups really took the initiative to improve their standing in the competition. Community groups from all over the UK - Manchester, Birmingham, Leicester and London, were devoted to spreading the joy and helping their community project win.”
