Planting trees in memory of much-loved colleagues

24/04/2023

By Lee Nottle

We’re teaming up with the charity project Trees for Streets to green Bristol, our home city, through tree planting. This partnership is personal, as it honours much-loved colleagues who have sadly passed away.

We have planted five new trees in memory of our wonderful colleagues, Mudiwa Sokoni, Jaspa Beese, Calvin Sewell, Ian ‘Bone’ Cholerton and Paul Straker. The trees are in Eastville Park, just a short distance from our warehouse. As well as the Essential family being able to visit and pay their respects, we hope that people who use the park every day will enjoy the trees for many years to come.

Fond memories of Mudiwa, Jaspa, Calvin, Bone and Paul

Calvin Sewell 
Working in our Sales team for 12 years, Calvin was very much a core member of our Coop and is greatly missed. He was involved in many aspects of the business, including as a regular member of our Haulier and Exports team. A lifelong vegetarian and later vegan, Calvin was also an animal lover and activist. His other passions were football (a true Welshman, he loved supporting his home team of Cardiff City) and punk music. He toured Europe and the USA with his band, Grand Collapse.

Jaspa Beese 
Jaspa was tireless in developing and promoting the Essential brand, and was a true ambassador for the Essential family. He was particularly keen to forge strong connections with fellow co-operatives across the country and beyond. He was generous with his time, knowledge and expertise; he built up warm friendships with colleagues, suppliers, wholesalers and producers alike. At events such Biofach or the Natural Products Show, it was always Jaspa who people wanted to talk to!

Ian 'Bone' Cholerton
Affectionately known as Bone. Bone was a member of Essential Trading Co-operative for a quarter of a century. A delivery driver for many years, he later moved to working at the Essential warehouse, becoming a mine of information regarding stock and warehouse organisation. Bone was vegan, an animal lover and animal rights activist. He loved punk rock and sang as a cross-dressing front man in ska and punk bands. He also loved country music, educating us with his extensive collection over the warehouse sound system.

Mudiwa Sokoni
Working closely with her good friends Fred(a) and Terressa, Mudiwa completed a formidable team in our Manufacturing department – weighing, labelling, and packing all kinds of colourful and fragrant products. Rest breaks and lunchtimes were enlivened by their often-uproarious laughter! Mudiwa was proud to work at Essential and to be a member of our cooperative. She was a shining example of hard work, responsibility, and camaraderie.

Paul Straker 
Paul joined Essential over twenty years ago, bringing a wealth of experience, bags of common sense and a fearsome old-school work ethic to Manufacturing. An unsung hero and indispensable workmate, Paul inspired a better workplace and improved our systems. Proud of his Bristolian roots, Paul was a loyal Bristol Rovers supporter. He had green fingers (often sharing his garden produce with the Essential team), and his good humour ensured that the Bishopston based Young Ones' anti-Thatcher rhetoric was never forgotten and oft-repeated.

Greening the grey in Bristol

Trees for Streets is the national street tree sponsorship scheme from the charity Trees for Cities. The scheme arrived in Bristol in 2022, and its mission is to fund the planting of more than 250,000 additional street trees nationwide over the next 10 years.

Would you like to sponsor a tree in Bristol? Anyone can get involved – visit treesforstrees.org/Bristol to find out more.