A BLACK Country social enterprise is celebrating its 25th birthday in style after joining forces with one of the West Midlands’ leading recruitment advertising specialists.

Dudley-based Lunch on the Run has been chosen as Candidate Source’s ‘Charity of the Year’ while also planning to help it increase its catering business and the number of trainees it can support.

Candidate Source, which helps to place thousands of candidates in jobs every year, has already committed to funding the direct costs, uniform and travel expenses of one new Lunch on the Run employee and will also look to raise more than £2,500 through a series of events throughout the year.

This additional backing will help the social business grow its external catering services and continue to attract new customers to its coffee shop located at DY1 in Dudley – all geared towards generating revenue that will help it provide even more mentoring, training and employment opportunities for people with learning disabilities.

Dudley News:

Sally Bassett, manager of Lunch on the Run, said: “Like many other organisations in our sector, we have had to endure funding cuts, so have tried to become more commercial in the way that we operate – basically generating our own revenue.

“This has been fairly successful with a number of catering projects completed for local businesses and schools, whilst taking on the coffee shop has given us the chance to increase sales whilst giving our trainees fantastic training and work experience.

“The news that Candidate Source has chosen us as their charity of the year is a fantastic way to celebrate our 25th.

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“We’ve put our heads together and come up with some exciting ideas that will raise money to buy a commercial refrigerator and, importantly, get the message out to the business community about what we can do.”

Lunch on the Run currently supports 17 people, providing them with training, life skills and important work experience in their catering business or coffee shop.

Michelle Davies, managing director of Candidate Source, said: “We wanted our charity to be a smaller one where we could get more involved and see exactly how our expertise and support was benefitting them.

Dudley News:

“The minute we visited Lunch on the Run, saw the enthusiasm of Sally and her staff and then met the trainees we were sold.

“We immediately agreed to fund one additional trainee and are looking to put on tribute acts and a race night to help raise the additional money needed to improve the facilities in Dudley.”