On the 24th of July 2026 the North Staffordshire YMCA hosted its Big Day Out. This event allowed families to see the YMCA facilities and get involved in some fun free activities including rock climbing, axe throwing and football! It’s also an important day that the residents have a hand in organisation and running, so it’s great to report the day was big success. Free to attend but ticketed the Big Day Out came with a free meal of either a hot dog or burger, and that’s where we came in. 7 members of the PH Production services team volunteered to help run the kitchen with some members of the Port Vale FC office team. After a few photo opportunities and an introduction to the kitchen we quickly got to work in a range of roles. Russell and Dave were our head chefs getting to work cooking the burgers and hot dogs. Pete and Gary got to work cutting and frying onions while Tommy, Elizabeth and the Port Vale office team made sure that we had all the necessary tools and utensils to serve 200 people. James who was familiar the kitchens pot wash system got to work keeping the amount of dirty pots and pans at a manageable level. Last year PH Production Services were sponsors of the YMCA’s Community Kitchen where we bought, cooked and served oatcakes with a range of fillings. An important part of PH Production Services work is to give back to the local community and these types of days are exactly the type of thing we like to get involved in. We look forward to working with the YMCA and other community outreach projects in a volunteering role in the near future. James who was part of both the kitchen team for the Community Kitchen event and the YMCA Big Day Out had to say about the opportunities “It was fabulous to support the YMCA’s events for the 2nd year, taking a break from design and desk work to get involved in something totally different is great and supporting an organisation that does such incredible work for the local community is really important. Last year we sponsored the event and helped in the kitchen, so it’s great to be back with the YMCA team for such a fun day out of the office.”
