Community Life

Giving back, helping others and creating a sustainable business are three key areas we are incredibly passionate about at Cherubs Nurseries. These are bought together through our community life work which is something we are incredibly proud of.

At the heart of community life is our charity partner, who is selected from nominations from our staff, parents and families. For us, it’s important our nominated charity or cause resonates with our parents, families and team and that together we do good. Fundraising for this partner runs from November (from the year before) until the end of October the following year. Each nursery has a fundraising target of £650 for the year – with many of our nurseries regularly raising over £1,000 each year. Our fundraising events continue to be cash-only, this allows us to minimise unnecessary costs such as card handling and processing fees and donate 100% of money raised to our charity partner.

Every year, we give our parents and team the opportunity to nominate a UK charity or cause to receive our support. We’re proud to introduce our 2026 charity partner, Rainbows.

Rainbows provides compassionate, expert palliative and end-of-life care to babies, children and young people across the East Midlands. The unique needs of each baby, child and family are the centre of everything they do, and their mission is to support them in their most comfortable and preferred setting. Rainbows works collaboratively with other professionals and volunteers, they provide care and support and create opportunities and meaningful memories through illness, death and bereavement. Their work starts at their Hospice in Loughborough but extends to Hospitals across the East Midlands in addition to their Hospice at Home service and Community Hubs.

Commenting on this year’s partnership Susan Mills, Founder of and CEO at Cherubs Nurseries said “Our charity partnerships and community life efforts are central to everything we do at Cherubs Nurseries. Thanks to the support and generosity of our parents and families we continue to raise some incredible amounts for worthwhile charities and causes and I’m sure 2026 will be no different. We previously supported Rainbows in 2016, so supporting them exactly 10 years later feels like a full circle moment, and a wonderful opportunity to continue to support them, and the wonderful work they do.”

Alongside our nominated charity partner, we make a difference locally in our communities by:

• Hosting monthly community clean ups
• Partnering with local residential homes to promote inter generational relationships and experiences
• Hosting donation drives for local food banks and soup kitchens
• Donating used bedding, blankets and towels to Dogs Trust centres
• Donating un-claimed nursery lost property to local charities and causes including Mind charity shops

We aim to have a positive, long-lasting and far-reaching effect on all the communities we serve, involving as many people as possible. For our children, this gives them additional learning opportunities and for our families and people, it gives them a sense of pride knowing that they’re doing something worthwhile and truly special.

We place a high level of importance on the sustainability of our business and the impact we have on the world around us. We must ignite an understanding of the world and how to protect it in all the children we care for.

Just a few of the things we do as part of our CSR and Sustainability Action Plan across all nurseries are:

• Meat Free Monday – having at least one plant-based day a week is a fun and easy way to do something good for the planet and our future.
• Plan our nursery menus carefully to reduce food waste while ensuring children receive balanced, nutritious meals. Many of our dishes are designed to be cooked in batches and thoughtfully reused in soups, sauces, pies and desserts. This approach supports sustainability while maintaining high food quality and safety.
• Disposing of waste in the most effective way including dedicated collections for general and mixed recycling (where possible).
• Banning as much single-use plastic as we can including aprons, balloons and disposables. We’re working on laminating pouches, too!
• Using sustainable, hypoallergenic and biodegradable nappies, wipes and sacks – from Kit and Kin.
• Ban on glitter and glitter products – even eco-friendly glitter may contain micro-plastics.
• Offering our used coffee grounds for parents to use on their garden/compost at home.