Education, Community, LegacyMcDonald’s Restaurant • 324 Cross Cheaping • Coventry

Coventry in Bloom• Coventry were City in Bloom Gold Winners in 2013• Collaboration between stakeholders – Council / BID / Landscape Group / Police / Community• Important for attracting and retaining footfall into City Centre• Highlights heritage and history of Coventry City Centre• Align with 100 year anniversary celebrations of World War 1• Pride in City [Discover Coventry]

Local McDonald’s franchisee John Kiely and crew from his Cross Cheaping restaurant joined forces with the Business Improvement District (BID) and Coventry City Council to tackle litter in the city centre. The litter party which was made up of 21 volunteers took to the streets around Barracks car park, the Cooperative service area, Argos service area, and McDonald’s, over a three hour period from 9am - midday. This clean up event was set up to encourage the community to take responsibility for keeping their neighbourhood litter-free and to take pride in their local environment.

Now in its third year, the event is just one of hundreds of McDonald’s clean-up initiatives taking place across the country in 2013, as part of Keep Britain Tidy’s anti-littering campaign, ‘Love Where You Live’. The campaign encourages the public to take action and help reduce the amount of litter in their local area and across England by 2020.

We are currently organising another clean-up where again we will be working together with McDonald’s Cross Cheaping, Coventry City Council and the local community to help support an area within Hillfields, this will involve cleaning the area, planting new flowers and getting local people involved within the project to be proud of where they live and help maintain this throughout the year.

Education, Community, Legacy

Coffee Recycling

Coventry Business Improvement District (BID) set up an initiative with a local franchisee John Kiely from McDonald’s, recycling the used ground coffee beans from his Cross Cheaping restaurant to fertilise flower beds within the city centre.

The idea came about after taking inspiration from the restaurant’s Planet Champion, who had heard of a similar initiative in London. Lab tests show that coffee grounds are particularly good for acid-loving plants, but also, as a substantial amount of the acid is ‘cooked out’ of the coffee and drunk the residue is also suitable to be used as a fertiliser for the majority of plants.

For the past few months John has been storing the coffee in the restaurant ready for the Landscape Group to collect and re-use in the floral beds in the city centre. So far the team has successfully used the ground coffee in Lady Herbert’s Gardens and Greyfriars Green. The Council will be monitoring how successful this is with a view to using in other areas of the city.

As part of necessary works to redevelop Coventry city centre some trees have been earmarked for removal. Coventry City Council’s leader, Cllr Ann Lucas, has however pledged that roads and pathways will be moved to accommodate as many existing trees as possible and where trees have no option but to be removed two will be planted elsewhere in the cityin its place.

“A big thank you to McDonald’s for donating

used coffee beans – what a difference they are making

to our beautiful gardens.

Councillor Abdul Khan

Education, Community, Legacy

“When we visited Lady Herbert’s Garden we met the owner of the

local McDonald’s who is donating his coffee grounds which is being used

as fertiliser for flower beds.

Roger Tait - Judge,England in Bloom Competition

BEFORE

Hatfields region Bloom Event 28th July 2014

26 volunteers from McDonald’s Cross Cheaping helped to transform a Coventry Street and return it to its former glory.

Along with residents, Coventry BID representatives, Landscape Group employees, Coventry Community Liaison Officers, Police and PCSO’s, and a local Councillor, the street’s planters were dug, weeded, and replanted to create a wonderful feature that everyone could be proud of.

In restoring the 10 planters to their former glory, the group used 250 new plants, 200 bags of fertiliser, 10 wheelbarrows, 10 shovels, forks, plus a full skip that removed soil, dead shrubs and a sofa!

There was fantastic coverage by Free Radio and the Coventry Telegraph featured the activities, plus the event was advertised and pictures shared on Facebook, Twitter and on a Blog.

I would like to thank John Kiely and all his staff at McDonalds for the great job they have done.  A big thank you as well goes to staff from the Landscape Team and Coventry Bid who all mucked in to make light work of a big job.  Winchester and Colchester Street haven’t looked that good in ages.  Let’s keep it that way!

Councillor Jim O’Boyle

“

Education, Community, Legacy

“I am excited to hear about the initiative to work with the local community and McDonald’s to tidy up a local area and create a legacy of Bloom for the residents.

Nicola ClarkeJudge, England in Bloom Competition

DURING

AFTER

“Thank you to all the staff from McDonald’s

in Coventry who made our street look fabulous

again, You worked so hard digging, weeding planting

[and avoiding worms].We really appreciate it.

Andrea, JP and Safi,7 years old

[from Winchester Street]

CROSS CHEAPINGCOMMUNITY ACTIVITY

Education, Community, LegacyMcDonald’s Restaurant • 324 Cross Cheaping • Coventry