A note to the MWSA from CEO of the Drinks Trust Nicola Burston
Dear Midland Wine & Spirit Association Members
On behalf of The Drinks Trust, I just wanted to thank you for your support, which means that we are able to help so many more people in desperate need. Your donations over the years have contributed to nearly 100 financial grants to people in terrible hardship, or over 550 counselling sessions to those struggling with their mental health.
Please find attached our Impact Report that gives you a feel for the work that we achieved in 2024; but there is so much more to do. This year, poverty is at a 22-year high, the value of universal credit is at a 40-year low -v- inflation and more unemployment and hardship is forecast as businesses everywhere are being forced to make very difficult decisions with their staffing to save costs.
According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the UK’s leading expert on poverty in UK, 1 in 5 adults of working age will experience poverty this year and we also know that one in three of us will suffer from anxiety or stress. To put that into context, that means around 700,000 of our colleagues in the drinks and hospitality industry will suffer financial hardship, and over a million will struggle with their mental health. The Drinks Trust represents all of us in this industry, and we hope to help as many people as we can in more holistic and longer-lasting ways. But we need your help.
This year, we launched our campaign to raise £1m in 2025, “Face It Together”. By coming together as an industry and making any contribution, however small, everyone can help. Our ability to pull together as an industry is the alchemy that transforms every individual contribution into a combined force for good.
Please visit our site: https://www.faceittogether.org.uk/ to learn more about the people that we are helping and how you can support the campaign. As well as donating, you could fundraise for us in any number of ways by donating a small % of items sold or creating a fundraising evening or event or participating in a sporting activity.
We also have a number of sporting events that you could take part in this year; why not take a table at our gala dinner, enter a MWSA team to our Golf Day, our 5-Aside Football or our Touch Rugby, or organise one of your own in the Midlands? Details of our year activities are on our website: https://www.drinkstrust.org.uk/
Anything that you are able to do, is greatly appreciated. We cannot do our work without you!
Nicky Burston
Chief Executive Officer
The Drinks Trust – Supporting Drinks Industry People
T: +44 (0)7764 372229
Helpline: 0800 915 4610
Read our 2024 Impact Report HERE
