13/08/2026
❤️ SOMETHING I’M REALLY PROUD OF ❤️
With it being our first birthday week, I’ve spent quite a lot of time thinking about the last year — what we’ve achieved, what we’ve got wrong 😂, what we’ve learned and where I want Sandweetch’s to go from here.
And one thing keeps coming back to me.
As proud as I am of the shop, one of the things I’m proudest of is watching our youngsters grow with it. ❤️
We never set out with some big plan to do this. It has just happened naturally. But over time, watching these five find their feet, grow in confidence and realise what they’re capable of has become one of my favourite parts of Sandweetch’s.
❤️ LUKE
Luke has actually been part of our businesses since before Sandweetch’s existed. He worked with us at Bubble & Shake and has always taken a real interest in what we’re doing. He’s had input into different products and ideas along the way and isn’t afraid to tell me when he thinks we should do something differently either. 😂
At Sandweetch’s he’s absolutely thrived. He’s confident, capable, works incredibly hard and has reached the point where he’s now helping to teach other people. I love that he doesn’t just turn up and do a shift — he actually cares about the shop and wants things to be right. Watching him take responsibility and seeing the worker he’s becoming makes me incredibly proud.
❤️ KELSEY
Kelsey has probably had one of the biggest transformations. She started with me at Bubble & Shake and was so quiet. Taking orders was completely outside her comfort zone and she didn’t always have the confidence to make decisions for herself.
When we moved over to Sandweetch’s, everything was bigger, busier and completely different, and she found that change really daunting at first. But she kept turning up and pushing herself.
Now I look at her and sometimes can’t believe she’s the same girl. 😂 She’s a key holder, she takes responsibility, uses her initiative, deals with customers confidently and has become somebody I can genuinely rely on. She’s now getting very close to being ready to step up and run shifts herself, which is something I don’t think she’d ever have imagined when she first started with us.
❤️ EBONY
Ebony has grown enormously too, and I don’t think she always realises quite how much.
She’s naturally a very emotional person and has never been somebody who finds it easy to see in herself what other people see in her. But over time I’ve watched more and more of her personality and confidence come through at work.
She walks through the door differently now. She’s more confident, more comfortable in herself, gets involved and is learning that she really is capable. There are still days when she doubts herself — and I’m sure there always will be because that’s Ebony 😂 — but she keeps going, keeps learning and keeps becoming stronger. Seeing her come into work happy, confident and quite often absolutely glowing makes me incredibly proud of how far she’s come. ❤️
❤️ COURTNEY
Courtney came to us originally for her work experience and was so quiet and shy when she first arrived. But it didn’t take very long for us to see that underneath that quietness was somebody who genuinely wanted to learn.
After her work experience I offered her a job, and she has absolutely smashed it. Her work ethic is spot on, she’s eager to learn and she listens and takes things in incredibly quickly.
She’s spent a lot of time learning alongside Luke and in only a matter of weeks she’s become confident doing things that were completely new to her not long ago. She’s already reached a point where we know we can give her something to do and trust that she’ll get on with it properly. I’m really excited to see what another year does for her.
❤️ FREDDY
And then there’s Freddy. ❤️
Freddy only joined us a few months ago when I offered him a job helping with the washing up. He was incredibly shy when he first came in and very unsure of himself. He was also possibly the most particular washer-upper I’ve ever met in my life. 😂 Everything had to be absolutely perfect!
But watching him settle in has been lovely. He’s learned how we work, become so much more confident and is now brilliant at what he does. He washes, dries, puts everything away properly and is always looking for ways he can help with something else.
One of the biggest changes, though, is simply seeing him become more comfortable around us. He used to apologise for absolutely everything — even things he hadn’t done! 😂 We’ve been slowly teaching him that he doesn’t need to say sorry just for existing, and that confidence is starting to show. He’s extremely helpful, conscientious and has become a genuinely valued member of our team.
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They’re five completely different young people, with different personalities, different strengths and different things they’ve had to overcome in themselves.
And I’m proud of every single one of them.
I love seeing potential in these kids that sometimes they can’t see in themselves yet. I love watching the quiet ones find their voices, watching them learn to take responsibility and seeing that little moment when something they once found scary suddenly becomes completely normal to them.
I’m not trying to build some huge workforce of youngsters. 😂 These are simply the young people already in our lives who have ended up becoming part of Sandweetch’s — and helping them grow has become a part of this business that means far more to me than I ever expected.
Sandweetch’s will obviously always be about the food. 🥪😂
But when I think about its future, this is part of it too.
A little business where people are given a chance, where they’re allowed to learn, where mistakes aren’t the end of the world, where hard work is recognised and where hopefully these five leave us one day — however far into the future that might be — with more confidence in themselves than they walked in with.
That’s something I’ll always be proud of. ❤️
And I’m pretty bloody proud of this little lot too. 🥹❤️
