NAAFI Fund – Round 1

We are delighted to announce that the first round of awards have been made under the NAAFI Welfare Fund. This funding was very well received with over 400 applications for £4.2m of funding. The bids were varied and wide ranging and it was a difficult task to choose the successful ones.  In March, the Fund Trustee Board chose 65 awards worth more than £700,000 to help improve the quality of life for serving personnel and their families.

The awards will help to create community hubs and gardens, in-door and out-door recreation areas, as well as providing bikes, paddle boards and gym equipment in the UK and overseas including Naples, Gibraltar, Cyprus and France.

The NAAFI Fund has now reopened for Round 2!

As well as the continuing theme of improving life for serving personnel and their families; this round, the Fund’s focus will be on making awards that will contribute towards improving health and wellbeing, including mental health.

This year, units can still apply for £5,000 to £20,000, but we are also looking for some exciting, ambitious, larger scale projects in excess of £20,000. More information can be found in the NAAFI Fund programme guidance.

This remains a two-stage application process with units asked to submit a 50-word summary to NAAFI outlining their proposed project and costs, no later than 14 July 2021. Successful submissions will then be invited to make a full application for funding through the AFCFT website before the deadline of 28 July 2021. Awards will be made in October 2021.

Full details about the awards made under the NAAFI Fund and how to apply to the new round, can be found on the Trust’s website: www.covenantfund.org.uk

On the 9^th December 2020, NAAFI reached the momentous occasion of our 100th Birthday.

We would like to wish all our customers and employees, old and new, a very happy NAAFI Birthday!

Best Wishes The NAAFI Team

Coronavirus (COVID-19) update 1^st April 2021 – We have all been living with COVID-19 restrictions for over a year now and whilst UK now has a roadmap out of lockdown, cases continue to rise in a third wave across Europe and the rest of the world.  

At NAAFI our focus remains on keeping everyone safe while they are visiting our outlets or are recipients of our services. As the situation continues to evolve we will continue to work with each host country and maintaining a close action plan with local Command to ensure that our services are prioritised for those that need them the most.

Safety for everyone

Our support employees are working from home where possible - however this is clearly not an option for the vast majority of our employees serving in retail, catering, leisure, cleaning and on-board Naval ships. In order to protect our key workers, who remain in customer facing roles we, have implemented multiple controls. These controls also protect the health of our customers and those visiting our outlets.

Due to our geographical spread, our CV-19 controls vary by location and we ask all visitors to our sites to follow the appropriate CV-19 preventative measures as directed on site to protect themselves and others. These preventative measures may include the following:

Social distancing to minimise the risk of infection for both our customers and employees.

One-way systems in our smaller outlets to support the social distancing rules.

Card and contactless payments are encouraged in all locations to reduce cash handling.

Strict hygiene routines and regular cleaning daily cleaning is in place.

Hand sanitiser or hand washing stations are in place at all entrances and exits.

Our Customers

We are directly engaged with local Command groups on a regular basis, as well as providing regular updates to our customers on our local social media. We are grateful to our customers around the world for their continued support during this period.

Our Teams

We would like to thank all our NAAFI teams who are working tirelessly to maintain service to the Armed Forces wherever they need us, whether that is on board HM Ships or in far off locations such as Ascension Island, Falklands Islands, Gibraltar or Brunei. We would like to reassure our customers that we will continue to do our best so that the Armed Forces can continue to do what they do best.

Your NAAFI team

NAAFI was established by the British Government in 1920 when the Expeditionary Force Canteens (EFC) and the Navy and Army Canteen Board (NACB) were combined to run the recreational establishments needed by the Armed Forces, and to sell goods to servicemen and their families.

NAAFI expanded its operation over the next 17 years, supporting military bases and deployments across the world, from Bermuda and Jamaica, to Singapore and China. At the outbreak of WWII NAAFI grew exponentially to support the troops on active service, with the number of employees rising from 8,000 to a peak of 110,000 and the number of trading outlets growing from 1,350 to nearly 10,000.

Post war, NAAFI rescaled its operations, closing canteens at a rate of 200 per week and the number of employees reducing to 65,000 by 1947. From the 1950’s onwards, NAAFI has supported the British Forces at home and abroad, including the conflicts in The Falklands, the two Gulf Wars and Afghanistan amongst many others. Today NAAFI operates in far fewer locations but is present in Germany, Gibraltar, Brunei, the South Atlantic Islands and on board HM Ships, providing convenience and a ‘taste of home’ to our Forces and their families overseas.