Will you receive a random act of kindness?

Sunday 23 June 2019

Islanders could soon be on the receiving end of a random act of kindness from local supermarket employees as they take part in a national week aiming to celebrate and promote cooperation.

Launched in 2010, 'Co-op Fortnight' will run from tomorrow to Sunday 7 July as a way to highlight the role businesses controlled and owned by their members play in local communities.

Islanders will be familiar with the local supermarket, but co-operatives take many formats. Together, they contribute £36 billion to the UK economy each year and span all sectors from the high street, to sport and agriculture.

This year, Co-op Fortnight's theme is ‘random acts of kindness’ and will see members of Jersey's Co-operative Society supermarket chain join employees from co-operatives across the UK in thinking of ways they can be kind to others, ranging from participating in clean-ups to collecting donations for food banks.

Pictured: Jersey's Co-op employees will be taking part in the fortnight, which this year has the theme 'random acts of kindness'.

The idea of the Fortnight is to show that by working together, through co-operation, improvements can be made to whole communities.

Members of the public are also being encouraged to join in by sharing their acts of co-operation on social media using the hashtag #CoopFortnight.

"We’re coming together during Co-op Fortnight to show everyone why co-operation is what the world really needs right now and we’d love it if the public joined in, creating a chain reaction of positive stories as they tag friends and family. It doesn’t have to be a big thing, a simple act of teamwork can lift the spirits," Ed Mayo, secretary general of Co-operatives UK, explained.

Pictured: Co-op COO Mark Cox, who said the society was "proud" to take part in the special fortnight.

Mark Cox, Chief Operating Officer for the Channel Islands Co-operative Society, said: "We are proud to be taking part in Co-op Fortnight again this year to spread the co-operative message across the Channel Islands, and show that when people join forces they can make a real difference to their local community.

"I am looking forward to seeing what random acts of kindness colleagues come up with. Co-op Fortnight links back to our key message of ‘Belonging is Everything’ which we try to highlight in everything we do, and we hope islanders will join us for these two weeks of co-operation."