One of Britain’s oldest benevolent societies, the Provision Trade Benevolent Institution (PTBI) is celebrating its 190th anniversary this year.
The provision trade charity was set up on 29th October 1835 when a group of cheesemongers met at Andertons’s Coffee House in Fleet Street, London, to create a society “for the relief of their unfortunate brethren”. The charity was initially known as the Cheesemongers’ Benevolent Institution, but membership later included “Provision Merchants, Agents or Brokers, Butter and Egg Salesmen, Cheese Factors, Bacon Dryers and Lard Refiners” and, in 1914, the name was changed to the Provision Trade Benevolent Institution.
Today, the charity continues to support people from the provision trade who have fallen on difficult times, providing regular financial support as well as one-off grants to help them live independently.
Contributing to workers’ welfare
A Committee of 12 trustees supervises the PTBI, many of whom have had long careers in the provision trade, who are delighted to maintain contact with the industry and to contribute to the welfare of its workers, said the charity.
One of the PTBI’s longest-serving trustees, Tony Stanton (previously managing director of Direct Table, a family business that started as a butcher’s shop in Smithfield Market) commented: “I’ve always been passionate about supporting the people who make this industry what it is. When I first heard about the PTBI, I was struck by its incredible history of helping those who’ve fallen on hard times. I wanted to play a small part in continuing that legacy and making a difference to colleagues from across the trade.”
“Staying involved with the PTBI allows me to give something back to a community that has given me so much over the years.”
Stanton continued: “Although I’m no longer active in the day-to-day business, the industry still feels like home to me. Staying involved with the PTBI allows me to give something back to a community that has given me so much over the years.”
PTBI trustee Brian Murrell, who worked for Morrisons and its manufacturing arm Farmers Boy, added: “It meant a lot to me to become a trustee of my industry charity, an industry that I love and have been involved in for over 60 years of my working life. We remain fiercely independent and can react for assistance almost immediately, reducing stress for the applicants/family at their most difficult time.”
As the charity celebrates 190 years of supporting members of the trade, it said that it looks forward to continuing its “contribution to the welfare of those whose efforts played no small part in putting food on the tables of the British public” while sustaining one of the UK’s foremost industries.
A history of the charity
Over the years, fundraising has included a charity ball held at Harrods to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the PTBI in 1985, which raised the sum of £50,000.
For more information on the work of the PTBI, visit www.ptbi.org.uk, where you can find out more about the history of the charity in its report ‘Providing for the Providers’.
