Big Breakfast Plus receives The King’s Award for Voluntary Service

Swindon-based charity Big Breakfast Plus is among a select group of volunteers to be awarded The King’s Award for Voluntary Service for 2024.

This is the highest award a local voluntary group can receive in the UK and is equivalent to an MBE.

Big Breakfast Plus serves breakfasts seven days a week from the Pilgrim Centre in Swindon town centre and is available for anyone in the town who is homeless or hungry.

It is run almost entirely by volunteers, including a dedicated board of trustees, and has just four part-time paid members of staff.

Every day, the team serve 80 to 90 breakfasts, and on busy days this can be as many as 120. They pride themselves on serving freshly cooked breakfasts to those in need, in a warm and welcoming environment.

Big Breakfast Plus is one of just 281 local charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups to receive the prestigious award this year. Their work, along with others from across the UK, reminds us of all the ways fantastic volunteers are contributing to their local communities and working to make life better for those around them.

Charlotte Mannion, Big Breakfast Plus’s chair of trustees, said she was proud and excited on behalf of everyone involved in the charity, to have won the award. In all, a team of around 70 volunteers are on a rota, helping to run the breakfast café, which is open from 7.30am to 9am.

“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. “They come in at 7am, and run a calm, smooth community cafe. They greet our guests and make them feel welcome and comfortable. They look out for new people, so they can show them where everything is.

“All our volunteers go through an induction and receive regular training throughout the year including food safety qualifications. This means we run a very efficient and professional operation. 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 half-hour window day in and day out.”

The King’s Award for Voluntary Service aims to recognise outstanding work by local volunteer groups to support their communities. It was created in 2002 to celebrate Her Majesty The late Queen’s Golden Jubilee and, was continued following the accession of His Majesty The King. 2024 marks the second year of The King’s Award for Voluntary Service.

Recipients are announced annually on 14th November, The King’s Birthday. Award winners this year are wonderfully diverse and include volunteer groups from across the UK, such as a mental health and wellbeing support network for veterans and their families in Yorkshire; a group preserving a historic 12th century castle in south Wales; volunteers providing English lessons for refugees in Stirling and an organisation providing opportunities to engage in the arts for people with learning disabilities in County Fermanagh.

Representatives of Big Breakfast Plus will receive the award crystal and certificate from Lord-Lieutenant of Wiltshire Sarah Troughton later this summer. In addition, two volunteers from Big Breakfast Plus will attend a garden party at Buckingham Palace in May and June 2025, along with other recipients of this year’s Award.

Photo credit: Steve Grimmett Photography