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Teresa is the founder of The McCarthy-Dixon Foundation in Northampton, a charity that she established during the COVID-19 pandemic to tackle food poverty, social isolation and loneliness within the community.
Teresa grew up in a small fishing village in Ireland. The youngest of seven children, Teresa’s parents were Dairy Farmers which is where Teresa’s love of food started, and from a very young age.
Teresa pursued a career in cookery and has been a chef for over 20 years, having cooked all over Ireland as well as on the QE2 cruise ship. Since moving to Northampton from London in 2006, she became the landlady of the Swan & Helmet Pub which she has strived to make a hub within the community.
On a personal level, Teresa has two children and with her youngest daughter being autistic she has invested a lot of effort in learning about and understanding autism and how to support those impacted by it.
The COVID-19 outbreak drove her to work tirelessly to continue and grow the support available within the community. Teresa was nominated for and presented with many awards, including the “Northampton’s Inspirational Woman of the Year”, for her outstanding contribution and passion to improve the community’s standard of living.
Daisy supports TMDF part-time, alongside her studies in Sociology at the University of
Birmingham.
She provides a range of creative and administrative support for TMDF, including supporting
our communications, content creation, and managing our social media and public profiles.
She is also involved in grant writing and monitoring, as well as overseeing data monitoring
and reporting for the charity’s services, and general IT support for our team.
Jenna works part-time and plays a key role in supporting our Food Hub, volunteer initiatives,
and outreach efforts. She also works closely with our school partners, building and
strengthening our relationships to ensure they receive the best possible support from our
charity.
Jenna is also a qualified hairdresser with over 20 years of experience, and provides our
Affordable Haircuts every week at our Stay Well Wednesdays Club.
Áine has been involved with TMDF since its early days, assisting with the charity’s official registration in 2020. She also served as a trustee from 2023 to 2024. As a non-practising solicitor with a background in residential conveyancing, Áine brings a wealth of experience to the team.
A large part of Áine’s role involves telling TMDF’s story. She writes our weekly newsletter and articles for the local press, as well as contributing content to our website to show the impact of our work. She works closely with the team on our grant applications, writing the proposals that help fund our work in the community. Áine also manages our general enquiries, ensuring that everyone who reaches out to TMDF receives a helpful and welcoming response.
Sarah is a fantastic asset to TMDF’s team, working across our weekly social clubs to oversee day-to-day operations and provide care and support to our members. She also plays a key role in our wider network of community wellbeing services, guiding clients through referral processes and helping vulnerable individuals to access the support they need to move forward beyond crisis and disadvantage.
Liam drives our minibus every week, collecting our Social Club members from their homes
and ensuring that no matter where they’re based, they can get to our clubs, socialise and
enjoy the fantastic activities and support we have on offer.
Liam is also one of the charity’s main gardeners, providing renovations and maintenance to
people’s gardens when they may otherwise struggle to do so themselves.
Rob supports our Information, Signposting and Support Service, working one-to-one with clients to help them access the essential services they need. He provides a listening ear alongside practical guidance, assisting with referrals, applications, and navigating external support such as healthcare, benefits, housing and advisory services.
Having previously worked as a Housing Officer and volunteered for several years with Citizens Advice and a range of other local support organisations, Rob brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to his role. His background ensures we are able to provide informed and effective assistance to every client we support.
Gerry manages TMDF’s Community Allotment and also supports projects within our Gardening Service whenever he can. He oversees the ongoing maintenance of the allotment, plans seasonal crop rotation, and supports our clients to grow fresh, year-round vegetables and produce.
Highly experienced and passionate about what he does, Gerry brings a wealth of knowledge that he is always happy to share with both our clients and team during our weekly allotment sessions! His dedication helps ensure our green space continues to thrive for everyone involved.
Anna works every Wednesday from 11am to 1pm at our Stay Well Wednesdays club,
leading engaging activities and providing valuable support to our members. She runs our
weekly keep-fit sessions, always making sure they are inclusive and accessible to everyone.
Anna also creates and hosts all sorts of fun and stimulating games and activities, making
sure every member gets the most out of their visit each week.
Jenny works every Wednesday from 11am to 1pm at our Stay Well Wednesdays club,
providing toenail care and pedicures to our clients. She always provides this service with
kindness and discretion, ensuring our clients feel comfortable and confident.
Arlo joined the McCarthy-Dixon Family in 2023, and he quickly became much more than your typical family pet.
Whenever he’d go out for his daily walk, if the TMDF social clubs were running downstairs, he would always stop by to say hello to our members. Our clients instantly fell in love with him, and he now regularly attends all three of our clubs each week. Arlo is kind-natured, gentle, and always excited to see his friends, old and new! He always brings smiles, comfort, and plenty of cuddles to everyone at our clubs🐾
Doorstep Buddy & Volunteer
Liz supports our Doorstep Buddies Service by providing regular telephone calls to many of our clients. For TMDF’s clients who are socially isolated or unable to leave their homes, she does her utmost to ensure they stay connected with their community every week. Whether someone just fancies a quick catch-up, or they need a listening ear during a difficult time, Liz is always happy to offer her time to chat.
Liz is also a bit of an all-rounder, and often goes above and beyond to support TMDF’s services whenever and wherever she can. Whether it’s helping at our weekly social clubs, packing food parcels at the Food Hub, tidying someone’s garden, or assisting with our fundraising activities, Liz is always glad to step in with a smile on her face!
Tish is one of our lead Doorstep Buddy volunteers, making weekly home visits to provide
companionship and support to those who may be socially isolated. She offers a friendly chat,
a listening ear, and a caring presence, helping individuals regain confidence and a gateway
back into their community.
Nid helps out with the cooking every week for our social clubs, making sure our members
can all enjoy hearty, delicious meals with every visit.
Caoimhe supports our charity’s social media pages, ensuring we always have plenty of fantastic content to share and helping to keep our posts active and engaging. She creates graphics, writes captions, shares posts, and helps us make sure our message reaches our community. She’s also one of the friendly voices behind our replies and comments – helping TMDF to boost our online presence.
Irene is always ready to help with any task or event whenever needed. She plays an active
role in our fundraising and outreach efforts, and also regularly supports our charity’s Social
Clubs. Irene also assists at our Food Hub, and has worked alongside our team at various
fundraising events, including school fetes and festivals, always bringing enthusiasm and
dedication to every role she takes on.
Graham is a dedicated volunteer who regularly supports our Food Hub. On top of this, he
also supports our community allotment, helping to maintain our green space. Graham also
supports our gardening service, assisting those who may otherwise struggle to manage their
outdoor spaces alone. His hard work and commitment make a real difference to both our
charity, and the people we support.
Wendy volunteers weekly at our Food Hub, and is a driving force behind ensuring everything
stays organised and efficient. She carefully sorts, dates, and arranges many of our food
donations, ensuring our stock is ready for distribution. Wendy also provides vital support on
our major distribution days, assisting with packing and moving food parcels and other
essentials.
Mick is a complete all rounder for our charity and does whatever he can to help out. From supporting the foodbank to driving our van – Mick always works his hardest!
Cath does everything she can for our Monday Club, keeping it running and ensuring our members have a great time.
Marie supports all aspects of our Monday Club, from the bingo to the lunches, and keeping our members happy!
Colin volunteers with our Stay Well Wednesday social club, ensuring our members always
have everything they need for an enjoyable visit. He also supports our community stalls and
helps within our Food Hub, sorting and organising food donations whenever he can. Always
willing to lend a hand, Colin is a dedicated and enthusiastic volunteer who gets stuck into
any task. He is also a regular member of our Cheers for Tuesday club.
Debi supports our Monday Club every week from 12 to 4pm, overseeing our activities and
creating a warm, welcoming atmosphere for our members. She ensures everything runs
smoothly, from greeting new members, to offering a hand with lunch, and even announcing
the bingo and raffle when needed! Debi keeps our Monday Club organised, and ensures all
our members feel supported, included, and well cared for.
Rory supports our weekly men’s club, Cheers for Tuesdays. He joined us after finishing Sixth-Form and is now a valued member of our team, lending a hand wherever he can to ensure the club always runs smoothly!
Sandra has been a member of our Monday Club and Stay Well Wednesdays Club for several years, but after fancying something new, she decided to start volunteering for TMDF. Sandra now supports our other weekly social club, Cheers for Tuesdays, and is a wonderful addition to our team. She welcomes our clients and registers their attendance each week, and is always happy to have a chat or offer a hand with anything that’s needed.
Patrick was first introduced to TMDF as one of our clients, when he started attending our weekly men’s club. Since then, Patrick has become a much-loved figure at all of our clubs, and is always glad to lend a hand, helping to support the running of the sessions and making sure everything runs smoothly.
Pete works with Northampton General Practice Alliance and is our resident Social Prescriber! He joins us every week at our men’s club, Cheers for Tuesdays, which was initially established in partnership with SPRING Social Prescribing.
Through his work, Pete regularly identifies local people who could benefit from access to additional services and activities, and he often refers clients to our men’s club. He also attends Cheers for Tuesdays each week to meet with our members, have a chat, and offer any additional support they may need.
Joe is a valued member of our team who assists with our Food Hub. From our weekly
shopping trips, to moving food parcels and organising donations, Joe always does his
upmost to ensure our Food Hub’s operations run as efficiently as possible. He constantly
goes above and beyond to accommodate our charity anytime we need his support, and
plays a key role in our major distribution days.
Julie volunteers weekly at our Food Hub. She’s always willing to jump in and offer a hand
wherever she can, from dating and organising donations, to packing food parcels. She also
plays an important role during our major distribution days, ensuring food parcels are
prepared and distributed smoothly to those who need them most.
Dom offers a helping hand with our Food Hub, moving stock, packing bags, and doing whatever she can to help ensure those in need receive support.
The boys from Moulton Masters Walking Football Club are an enormous support to TMDF’s Food Hub, and they regularly offer their time to help out wherever they can.
Whether they’re collecting stock, transporting heavy loads of donations, or packing food parcels, they are an incredibly dedicated bunch and we’re so grateful for their efforts.
Jayshree supports our Food Hub by helping to organise stock, prepare food parcels, and assist wherever needed, making sure our community members receive the support they rely on.
Caroline lends a hand at our Food Hub, helping with sorting donations, packing parcels, and keeping everything running smoothly so that those in need are well supported.
Karam and his son Jiwan help out at our Food Hub by moving and organising stock and preparing food bags. The father and son duo are always happy to step in wherever they’re needed to ensure our service runs efficiently.
Jiwan supports our Food Hub alongside his dad, Karam, helping to move and organise stock and prepare food bags for those in need. He is always willing to lend a hand wherever required, playing an important part in keeping our service running smoothly.
Chris is a dedicated member of our team who supports our Food Hub. Whether it’s assisting
with weekly shopping trips, moving food parcels, or sorting and organising donations, he is
always ready to help ensure everything runs smoothly. Chris also played a huge role in
helping us establish our new Food Hub location, as he helped set up much of our new
shelving and racking for food storage.
Jack has been supporting TMDF since back in 2020, and now volunteers alongside his time
at School. He helps out with our food hub, home improvements service, community
allotment, even helping with the meals for our clubs. He’s a very kind and caring member of
our team.
Livvy is our youngest volunteer who offers a helping hand every week wherever she can, organisaing food donations and helping her mum arrange items for our fundraising stalls.
Vince offers a helping hand with our foodbank, moving stock, packing bags and doing whatever he can to make sure those in need receive support.
Mick mostly helps out with our foodbank, packing and moving stock, but he’s always willing to offer a hand wherever he can be helpful.
Steve supports our Food Hub by helping to sort and organise stock, prepare food parcels, and assist wherever he’s needed. He has also taken part in many of TMDF’s Fundraising Challenges, and is exceptionally passionate about supporting his local community in any way he can.
Debbie kindly offers her time on a regular basis to support our charity through her graphic
design skills and experience. She produces all sorts of fantastic artwork for us, ranging from
posters to social media posts, which we use to promote our services, events and impact.
Una is a cherished member of our volunteer team, who dedicates her time and talent to
knitting, crocheting, and crafting a variety of beautiful handmade items for our charity’s
community stalls. Her many creative contributions play a key role in supporting our
fundraising efforts and the work we do.
Dianne is a highly valued member of our volunteer team, who regularly knits, crochets and
crafts all sorts of fantastic goodies for our charity’s community stalls. From Christmas
decorations to beautiful handmade ornaments, Dianne regularly creates wonderful pieces
that support our charity’s fundraising efforts.
Chris works for Nationwide Building Society and is also part of the Swan and Helmet Football Club. He’s been supporting The McCarthy-Dixon Foundation from the very beginning, right back to when we were still called The Swan and Helmet Foodbank! Whether it’s coming in hands-on at our food hub and volunteering to move stock, or hosting wrestling night or quiz fundraisers, Chris is always enthusiastic to support our work. He’s constantly getting teams from his Nationwide offices to support our charity with volunteering sessions, and finding new ways to help us. We’re so grateful for his support, and it’s great to have him represent our charity as one of our ambassadors.
Ines is an Area Manager for Amazon, and a proud ambassador for The McCarthy-Dixon Foundation. When she’s not leading her team at work, you’ll find her passionately fundraising for TMDF. From organizing cake sales to jumping out of planes, she’s always up for a challenge if it means supporting our community. She’s regularly arranging for teams of staff from Amazon to join our food hub for volunteering sessions to pack food parcels, and will constantly go out of her way to promote our services and the work we do. Whether it’s through her ambassador role or her next wild fundraising idea, Ines is dedicated to spreading the word about our charity and the vital support we provide.
David works as a Contracts Director at Deane Roofing & Cladding, a Northamptonshire business who have been one of The McCarthy-Dixon Foundation’s biggest supporters from the very beginning. David is no exception to this, he’s taken part in many of our Fundraising Challenges over the years and always puts in 110% to everything he does for us. From cycling from London to Paris, to Skydiving, David will always go the extra mile (literally!) for our charity and do whatever he can to raise awareness for our cause and bring in some amazing donations to support our services. We’re so thankful for his unwavering support and the difference he makes by advocating for our work.
Steve has over 35 years experience in the voluntary, community, faith-based and statutory sectors as a qualified Youth & Community Worker, Teacher, manager, trainer, researcher, volunteer and trustee. Former roles have included Chair of Trustees of YMCA Northamptonshire, Executive Committee member of the Northampton & County Council for Voluntary Services, Neighbourhood Manager in Spring Boroughs for Northampton Borough Council and Youth Officer for two Church of England dioceses. He has been employed for the past 22 years as the Development Worker for Church-Related Community Work around Britain with The United Reformed Church.
Steve’s experiences as a charitable trustee for almost 30 years with the Resources in Community Trust and for 12 years as a Grants Adviser with the Northamptonshire Community Foundation have provided particular insights into how many local people and families are challenged by poverty, homelessness and the lack of decent housing, unemployment and low aspirations.
However, he is also well aware that there are many excellent local organisations and charities, such as the Teresa McCarthy-Dixon Foundation, who are working in partnership to alleviate poverty, to confront injustice and to work towards the Common Good and an even-more flourishing Northampton!
He combines his family commitments as an adoptive parent with 4 children alongside volunteer roles with The Friends of Northampton Racecourse, the Action for Happiness local group, the Northants Parents Forum Group, the Friends of Bethany, with Abington Lawn Tennis Club and as a member at St. Giles Church, Northampton, but ensuring that there is still time to enjoy the countryside, go biking and to support the Saints and Cobblers!
Marie is a Primary Headteacher and Mother to three young children; she has worked as a Teacher and School Leader for almost 20 years. Marie set up a primary free school in Northampton and was head of primary in a large British international school in Spain.
Born in Northampton, Marie attended local Catholic schools before gaining a first-class degree in psychology and a PGCE from the University of Manchester.
Marie has always been actively involved in school PTAs and governing bodies – working with the community and all stakeholders to ensure the best interests of the children are served.
Marie is experienced in safeguarding, strategic planning, budgeting and ensuring compliance with all statutory educational policy.
Marie’s Irish heritage and connections with Northampton inspire her to help and give back to the community, particularly to help those with hidden needs as well as children and families not being supported by other agencies.
Jackie was born in Northampton to Irish parents who came over in the 1950s and settled into the community.
Jackie works locally as a Finance Manager for a scaffolding company and was involved for many years in the Good Shepherd Primary School’s Parent Association. She has also served as Treasurer and Trustee for other charitable organisations for several years ensuring adherence with all finance and accounting regulations pertinent to this sector.
Personally, Jackie has seven children/stepchildren and ten grandchildren who keep her busy!
Mab has a long history of involvement in the charity world facilitated by his placement at Mind (Wolverhampton) during his student days. Subsequently, he became involved in international development (e.g. Oxfam), Health & Wellbeing (e.g. Solar) including advocacy, campaigning and sometimes disruptive intervention in public policy affairs.
Mab has delivered a number of talks, workshops and training sessions as well as running charity events and conferences.
As a Journalist, Mab focussed on international affairs, which included interviewing high profile foreign figures (e.g. head of states). He worked within the fashion industry with one couture design house, as head of communication.
From developing the strategy, including developing the social media profile of the house, to training models on self-presentation on the runway (catwalk), sharing his skills in getting media attention, and non-verbal communication i.e. how to profile themselves during photo-shoots. They subsequently haemorrhaged talent losses as their models were then recruited to sign up for bigger modelling agencies).
Mab has lectured at college and university levels in communications and has given public talks at several universities. He currently keeps busy with independent tutorials; mostly second year to masters-level students.
Pam has a background in education and after an early retirement from teaching Sociology and Health Studies. She started working in the voluntary sector with the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) as an adviser.
For many years, Pam lived in the North-East of England in an area that suffered greatly from the deindustrialisation of the 1970s and 80s. After being widowed she moved to Northampton in 2002 and continued with that work, becoming a Trustee and then Chair of the local CAB before retiring in 2018.
Pam has also been heavily involved with the local Credit Union, being a Director from 2008 until its merger with a larger Credit Union in 2020.
She has also been a Trustee of various education charities and a Director of several Community Interest Companies.
Throughout her life, Pam has been deeply interested in those groups outside of mainstream society who are often disregarded by policy-makers and seeks ways to improve their situation both through practical support and education, as well as through more obviously political intervention.
Graham is a home-town boy. As the Northampton Town football song goes, ‘city lights have never bothered him’. Having grown up in Northamptonshire, Graham then attended Nene College, before teaching across the county for almost 30 years.
Graham is a very proud dad of three children and lucky husband to his wife. During the COVID-19 Lockdown, he was keen to support the local community in general and, specifically, The McCarthy-Dixon Foundation, alongside two of his sons.
During the week, Graham works as a Deputy Head Teacher at Stimpson Avenue Primary Academy, and can see the effect that TMDF is having on local families. At weekends, Graham is either walking his dogs, joining in with the Park Run on the Racecourse or cheering on one of the local sports teams.
