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A cuppa for a parcel: special collaboration between PostNL and the Salvation Army

The Hague, the Netherlands, 13 September 2022 – PostNL starts placing parcel lockers at Salvation Army community centres, the first initiative launched by the PostNL Bijzondere Momenten Fonds. The fund creates special moments for people who could do with a little bit of help.

Your parcel helps

Over the next few weeks and months, PostNL will place the first eight parcel lockers at Salvation Army community centres, where neighbourhood residents can pick up or drop off their parcels. Thijs Kerckhoffs at PostNL Bijzondere Momenten Fonds: “Like us, the Salvation Army is looking for ways to bring people together, to strengthen connections between them. We’re contributing by putting in place parcel lockers in these centres, making people in the neighbourhood more aware that these centres are there. In addition, the centre will receive a small donation for every parcel so processed. In other words: a cuppa for a parcel.”

People meeting people in their own neighbourhoods

These community centres see people meet, do things together and look out for each other. The Salvation Army’s Margo Merts comments: “A parcel locker at the centre is a low-threshold way for people to meet. Neighbourhood residents coming to collect their parcels are very welcome to have a cuppa or to chip in as a volunteer. These centres are places for and by the neighbourhood. Everyone’s welcome, because we believe in the power of neighbourhoods to bring people together.”

This year, PostNL will put in place parcel lockers at eight community centres, in Amsterdam, Alkmaar, Ridderkerk, Utrecht, Sint Maartensdijk, Helmond, Ede and Joure. If a success, their numbers will be increased next year. The Salvation Army runs a total 130 community centres across the Netherlands.

PostNL Bijzondere Momenten Fonds

PostNL is keen to expand its social activities in the years ahead and has recently established its PostNL Bijzondere Momenten Fonds (which translates as “Special Moments Fund”) for this purpose. The fund aims to contribute to more connection, more contact and more care for each other, and PostNL will tap into its network and people to strengthen these social connections. The fund is planning to initiate new social activities and continue existing ones. This collaboration with the Salvation Army is the fund’s first new initiative.

PostNL has been lending a helping hand in society for years. In fact, it’s all in a day’s work for PostNL employees, who deliver many thousands of cards to the elderly in collaboration with Nationaal Ouderenfonds (“National Foundation for the Elderly”) and birthday parcels to children whose families have no money to spare, together with Stichting Jarige Job. PostNL’s deliverers also flag signs of loneliness and report this to charitable organisations.

Want to know more about PostNL Bijzondere Momenten Fonds? Go to www.postnlbijzonderemomentenfonds.nl

Want to know more about the Salvation Army and its community centres? Go to www.legerdesheils.nl/buurtwerk