We are excited to announce the launch of the new NAAFI Welfare Grant Fund. This Fund is intended to improve, or enhance life on base for our serving personnel and serving families

The NAAFI Fund will provide grants between £5,000 and £20,000 for projects that will enhance the welfare provision and improve quality of life for serving personnel and their families living on or near Armed Forces bases or stations.

Funding can be used for the development of better spaces and equipment for recreational activities, or to run a project for up to a year.  The funding is intended to enable Armed Forces personnel and their families to relax in while off duty.

In the first year of the NAAFI Fund, applications are encouraged for projects or activities that help to bring people together on military establishments and help reduce boredom or isolation.

The Fund is provided by NAAFI and administered by the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust.
 

Steve Marshall, Managing Director of NAAFI, said:

“We know that 2020 has been a difficult year, with our Armed Forces working hard. We’re delighted to be open for funding. You could use a grant from the NAAFI Fund to make a recreational space more comfortable, or to create an area with pool tables or games consoles. We are really looking forward to hearing your ideas about what would improve your life on base.”
 

Melloney Poole, Chief Executive of The Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust (the Trust) said:

“We are delighted to be working with NAAFI to deliver the NAAFI Fund and we look forward to supporting good projects that make a difference to serving personnel and serving families living on or near Armed Forces bases.”

Applications are open

Armed Forces bases and stations have until the 23 November 2020 to apply for this round. The first round is submitting a short summary of 50 words or less and approximate costs. This needs to be received by NAAFI in October 2020. More information is available in the programme guidance.

Find out more

Full programme details, guidance and resources are available via the Trust’s website, www.covenantfund.org.uk   

The NAAFI Fund will run for a minimum of 10 years. Dates for future funding rounds will be announced.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) update May 29th, 2020 – As we begin the process of slowly emerging from lockdown restrictions in all our locations we hope you are staying safe and well. There’s been a lot of change and we continue to help our employees and customers around the world access as many of our services as possible.
 

Here at NAAFI we have worked within host country COVID-19 direction and maintained a close action plan with local Command to ensure that our services are prioritised for those that need them the most.
 

Our facilities

• All our facilities are operating strict social distancing policies and we are grateful for your continued support and compliance with these.
• Pubs are reopening where and when we can with takeaway services available for food.
• Our catering facilities remain open.
• Our Coffee Forums are now fully open.
• We are operating a hot food home delivery service in some locations with the NAAFI Wagons visiting Married Qtr areas where possible.
• We are maintaining canteens on-board all active Royal Navy ships.
• We have maintained and remain prepared to deploy our UK pop-up shop facilities as and when required by the MOD

Safety for everyone

• To ensure we are doing everything to reduce the risk of infection for both our customers and staff, we have introduced distancing measures in all facilities.
• In our smaller outlets we have introduced a one-way system to support the social distancing rules.
• We are encouraging card and contactless payments in all our facilities to reduce cash handling.
• We have strict hygiene routines with regular cleaning every day.
• Hand sanitiser or hand washing stations are available at all entrances and exits.
• In Germany we continue to follow the rule regarding the use of face coverings in all our facilities for employees and customers.
• Where possible our support staff are working from home, 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 – they all remain in work every day and we are extremely grateful for this. 
• We would ask everyone to be mindful of the difficult circumstances that we’re all operating in and to be considerate to each other.

Maintaining Supply

• Our suppliers around the world have been excellent in maintaining the highest level of availability possible for all our customers. 
• In retail we continue to see high levels of availability in nearly all categories
• We are continuing to ask our team to fulfil new roles at short notice so that service is maintained across all facilities.

Informing Customers

• We are engaged with local Command groups around the world and communicate directly with them.
• We are utilising local social media to update customers on news and developments.

We would like to thank all our teams for 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 the Falklands 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.