Translator: Ellen Maloney Reviewer: Peter van de Ven
Izzy: Have you ever looked back at the end of a year and thought,
"What did I do? What did I really achieve? What difference did I make?"
That was me on New Years Eve 2017,
looking back on the year that had just finished.
I knew I wanted this coming year to be different.
Fast forward to June 2018,
and I'd looked at lots of ways of making the year count.
I'd decided on NCS, the National Citizen Service,
and their four-week program during the summer holidays.
Jess: I'd heard about NCS from friends at school.
I'd be spending two weeks away from home
and then back working on a local project.
I wanted to do it to meet new people my age
and to try and build up my confidence.
I was excited but also pretty terrified.
I: Me too.
I can still remember what it felt like, that moment when we set off.
The coach pulled away, leaving my family behind,
and Wales, three hours in the distance.
I didn't know anybody, and at times, I had to remind myself why I was there.
It helped me to think of a quote my mum once told me:
"Life begins at the end of your comfort zone."
J: I was certainly at the end of mine.
It would have been so much easier just to go home, but I chose to stay.
I told myself I would take it one challenge at a time.
And that first challenge when we arrived in Wales
was working together to put up our tents.
And I learned that tents have a lot of poles -
(Laughter)
and that working with my group was great.
I: That night after eating our jacket potatoes,
we all sat in those tents talking about why we were there and what we hoped to do.
Everyone's reasons were different,
but it felt like we were all in this together,
all 13 of us.
I felt lucky to be a part of this group.
J: And in that first week,
our group helpd me get through
and around and over a lot of obstacles.
We had to scramble over rocks, go canyoning and caving -
in a wetsuit, in a heatwave.
I: It was the caving that really got to me.
I remember thinking, "There's no way that I can do this."
And then, "Well Izzy, you just did."
One thing became clear to me.
When it's a new bit of life, you pay attention more.
You're fully immersed, you're there, totally focused.
And that felt powerful.
J: We'd spent the last two weeks challenging ourselves,
physically and mentally.
And not just with the outdoor activities,
but with all kinds of workshops to help build up our skills.
Next up was our social action project.
This was our chance to make a difference to our local area.
But how exactly were we going to do this?
I: Our group decided early on that we wanted to raise awareness,
not just money.
We wanted to work with a charity that was having a really positive impact
in our local area,
and there were lots to choose from,
but it was hard to know where to start.
We did a lot of research and made a lot of phone calls.
We got a lot of "no's".
J: I'm not going to make out like the rejection and the effort was easy,
but neither was climbing up massive rocks.
For some of our ideas, we were told that we were "too young",
you had to be over 18.
And for others, there just simply wasn't enough time to make it work.
We had just one week to design our project and the clock was ticking big time.
I: I, for one, was feeling the pressure. We all were.
I'd signed up to NCS to make this year count,
and I could see just how committed our group was.
We all had different skills and ideas to contribute,
and now we knew exactly where we wanted to focus our efforts.
We wanted to focus on our local foodbank.
They'd helped the family of one of our group.
Now, it wasn't easy for her to tell us about this.
And the fact that she did showed how much trust we'd built between us.
The more she told us about it, the more our whole group was certain:
this was what we wanted to do.
And we found that passion builds on passion.
J: So, it's fair to say that we gave it our all.
And on the final day of that week, we got our first "yes".
The manager of our local foodbank
agreed that our whole group could go and visit.
And on the group visit, what I saw shocked me.
It was small, more like a shed than a warehouse.
Half of us worked with the sorters,
to check through the food that had been donated.
So much of it was out of date or was already opened.
All of that had to be thrown away.
The other half of us worked with a computer tracking system.
There was barely enough food
to cover their client's needs for the next two weeks.
And it wasn't just the amount that was the issue;
it was the lack of variety.
I: It made me really angry.
We live in the fifth biggest economy in the world,
and this foodbank is feeding local children.
It's being used by young people my age,
and by nurses and veterans who can't afford the cost of living.
I learned so much.
Here in the south west,
over 120,000 emergency food items were distributed in 2018 alone.
And according to the Trussel Trust, that need is growing.
J: We wish there was no need for food banks in the first place.
But as we'd seen from our friend on our team,
this need is all too real.
So our group had to think, "What difference could we make right now?"
We designed a survey and we took it to the streets.
We asked people like you and like me
if they had ever donated to a foodbank before.
And if so, what?
I: What people told us is that if they knew what people really needed,
then they'd be more likely to give.
This made total sense.
But what was actually happening on the ground in supermarkets?
How were donations being encouraged?
We went to see for ourselves.
And what we found is that even when supermarkets had food donation bins,
they were placed by the exit, on the way out of the store,
so you'd only see them once you'd already done your shopping.
And there was nothing indicating what items were most needed.
J: We could see that this system was broken,
and we were determined to fix it.
We split the tasks up, and we worked like mad.
Some of our group designed the labels
that could be put directly onto supermarket shelves,
telling customers exactly what was needed by their local foodbank that week.
For Exeter foodbank,
this included items such as tea, fruit juice, and sanitary products.
A simple label can let people know this at a glance
and while they were still doing their shopping.
I: Others in our group, including me and Jess,
tried pitching our labelling idea to local supermarket chains.
We got plenty of "no's",
but we kept going and going.
And then we tried Sainsbury's in Exeter city centre.
The manager thought about it.
He said it was a brilliant idea.
It was a "yes" - he wanted to start trialling them straight away.
So that's what we did.
We got a list from our local foodbank
about what items were most needed that week,
and we placed our labels alongside those items on the shelves
so noone could be in any doubt.
Here's what happened in that store.
In just two weeks, food donations tripled.
J: Our group was so so happy that we'd been able to work together to do this,
to help our local area in such a short amount of time.
We were at the end of our four weeks of NCS together,
but as it turned out, we were far from done.
I: We found this out six weeks later at the final NCS celebration event.
Our group was sat with some of our parents and all the other groups in a big hall
watching the announcements onstage.
We got to hear about the other brilliant projects;
what they had done, and how much they had raised.
There was over 100 people, but it felt like a big family.
I was so proud of what our group
and everyone in that room had achieved.
I was so not expecting what happened next.
J: Me neither! It got to our group's turn.
Our NCS coordinator Danny was up on the stage.
He said, "This group doesn't know this yet,
but I've got some really exciting news."
I: We had no idea what he was going to say.
I was looking up at the stage, and swivelling around in my seat,
trying to see the rest of our group.
J: And then he said that our group had been invited to London
to meet with a team at Sainsbury's HQ.
There was a chance that our label idea could be rolled out nationally,
in all of their supermarkets.
J: It almost didn't feel real.
I: Not until I found myself, a month later,
sat around a board table in London with the rest of our group.
The Sainsbury's team were asking us for our feedback
on labels they were considering using in their stores,
both in the run-up to Christmas and as a permanent initiative.
It got even more real in the following weeks
when we were asked by Sainsbury's to film videos for a November launch.
Less than six months after we'd come up with our labelling idea,
Sainsbury's had decided they were going to roll it out nationally.
They were going to put labels directly on their supermarket shelves,
showing customers the 15 items most needed by their local foodbanks.
J: In fact, they thought it was such a fantastic idea
that they teamed up with Argos,
a toy retailer, to launch a joint campaign.
Their aim was to help brighten a million Christmases
through one million food and toy donations.
I: It was brilliant, seeing the "Help brighten a million Christmases" campaign
spread throughout so many stores.
I visited my local Sainsbury's
so I could see the labels on the shelves with my own eyes.
J: Between November and December,
food donations to our local foodbank had almost quadrupled.
I: And as we headed towards Christmas, one thing I knew
was that this was going to be an incredible year to look back on.
J: And as we started 2019, we got the news of the national impact of this campaign.
In the lead up to Christmas, over one million food donations were donated.
I: One million.
And that's not all.
We're still learning about the ripples spreading out from our initial idea.
Currently there is an online petition with over 100,000 signatures
calling on the CEOs of seven different supermarket chains
to roll out our label idea.
J: It was set up by a volunteer from a foodbank
who knows just how much donations really matter
and the real difference that our label idea could make.
You can support it here.
I: This is what happened when one group of 16- and 17-year-olds
set out to make a difference.
J: This is one project and one group of 13.
I: Can you imagine the positive impact made by us NCS participants altogether?
To date, it's a massive 12 million hours spent working on social action projects
all across the UK.
J: Young people aren't waiting to make a difference,
we're making a difference now.
Through NCS and other amazing organisations all around the world,
we're volunteering and we're taking action.
We're making sure that our time counts.
I: We'd like to leave you with this thought from Mark Richardson,
the manager of our local foodbank.
I: We'd love you to bring it to mind the next time you see something
that needs changing around you.
I: Sometimes you just need a new mind on an old problem -
J: sometimes the most simple ideas have the greatest impact.
I + J: Thank you.
(Applause)