Southbourne logo to raise £15,000 for the food bank this Christmas

Stewart Britton created the Sobo community logo and is now using it to raise money for Southbourne food bank.

Stewart created the logo which features the word SOBO with a heart in the second letter, three years ago.

He started spraying the logo throughout the streets of Southbourne and once he saw how much residents loved it, he decided to sell branded products to raise money for the local food bank.

Stewart approached all the high street shops and asked them if they would be interested in selling bags with the Sobo logo on, with all the profits from sales being donated to Southbourne food bank.

The local traders were only happy to help, which led to the launch of the Sobo charity campaign selling bags, stickers, masks, key rings and pin badges. Stewart, who volunteers at the food bank, has come up with a number of other schemes to raise money this year.

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He had the idea to distribute vouchers from the food bank to give the people the freedom to choose their own fresh produce from the local shops on the high street.

This gives people a chance to get produce that the food bank can’t hand out.

The shops onboard for this scheme are TD Fruits for fresh fruit and veg, Tasty Bakes for freshly made bread, Bacon and Cheese for meat and dairy produce and the General Store for household and personal items.

Following the launch of the vouchers, the next venture Stewart came up with was ‘SoboLoco’, a series of event fundraisers, with all revenue from the tickets sold going to the food bank voucher scheme.

Events have taken place in the Wight Bear, The Larder House, Makla and The Cliff House Hotel in Southbourne. The last two events of the year see a ‘Stewpot’s top 40 Christmas Countdown’ on the 23rd December in The Wight Bear and the New Year’s party at The Larder House which sold out in September.

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The raised funds from these next two events will bring the total money raised for the food bank to £15,000.

Stewart would like to thank all the people who have brought merchandise and attended Sobo events over the last three years. After a very difficult year for Stewart personally, he was pleased to be approached by Coastal Bid for his logo to be put up in lights this Christmas to welcome everyone to the Sobo community.