Holcim UK

We are a charity that continues to step up and deliver our charitable objectives by serving our community in a real and relevant way, meeting the needs of our beneficiaries, our fully inclusive work has expanded and diversified. Our project,‘ Thrive’. helps to address health and wellbeing, with a view to improving overall quality of life and in many instances the extension of life, and although we are a small charity, we punch above our weight, reaching up to 280 people weekly. Many of our guests are vulnerable, marginalised, experiencing disadvantage and distress. We look to promote personhood as without personhood, a person’s sense of well-being will be greatly affected. Most of our guests are elderly but not all as we attract a mixture of ages and abilities, providing help through community support and activities. We recognise that individuals have unique values, personal history, and personalities, and that each person we encounter, has an equal right to dignity, respect, and to participate fully in their environment- our work helps to enable them to do that. Presently we run singing cafes in six different community neighbourhood venues across Leicestershire, aimed at helping people with a broad range of mental health challenges including Dementia and social isolation. In addition, we offer party lunches which are designed to help predominantly elderly people with mental health challenges and loneliness. Both the singing cafes and the lunch parties have lots of common benefits, helping people engage with community and feel connected. Research conducted by the charity ‘Mind’ found that 84% of people with mental health challenges feel isolated. Our work helps address that. The singing cafes continue to be online via zoom once a week, and the lunch parties happen at our charity facility in Stanton, and our guests can also take advantage of our telephoning and visiting service, with medical appointment transport. Both arms of the project have enabled us to reach and help many, ranging from those who are physically and mentally challenged to those who are isolated, suffering with severe loneliness, with many of our guests accessing both arms of the project. Through a connection with the ‘FareShare’ scheme we have connected with some food outlets and we have been able to offer a new arm to our work, helping to limit food waste and help those who are experiencing food poverty. We call this ‘The People’s Pantry’. Like all of our work, it is open to anyone and we have been able to get some very needed food items into the hands of people who need help with their food budget. We know that poverty can be closely linked to mental health being both a cause and a consequence. We want to do all we can to limit the negative impact of lack on people’s well-being! Many of our project guests have been able to take advantage of this new offer and we are making some new connections

Being part of the Community Fridge Network, our Charnwood Community Fridge is completely a non-profit/voluntary service that is dedicated to reduce food waste and support community resilience. Our Community Fridge is run by volunteers. Unlike conventional food banks, our Community Fridge is open to all, free of charge, and anyone can contribute to, or use food from the fridge. We collect donated food from local supermarkets, other local businesses, producers and private household, preventing waste by making it available to anyone in the Loughborough and surrounding areas. Our project operates from: Shelthorpe Family Help (Previously known as Shelthorpe Children & Family Wellbeing Service - CWFS): Woodthorpe Road, Loughborough, LE11 2NF. Located within the Shelthorpe Family Hub and share the site with Lift Beacon School/nursery, Charnwood Community Fridge has been a source of support for so many more vulnerable families and a meaningful space for people to socialise, reduce isolation and enjoy a sense of community. Visit us on our Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090359844289 Our webpage: https://sites.google.com/d/1RSCe3EJyTd1iunLanrsRFKO9Wf0q2eUM/p/1gzm6ZTYPLbKMs3ngyFEfQlLMsM39GO0G/edit Our Food Standards Agency (FSA) rating can be viewed here: https://ratings.food.gov.uk/business/1160021/cfw-service

“We are fighting food waste and preventing residual food from going to landfill. The residual food is repurposed to ensure no one goes hungry”. We have a retail shop in the centre of High Wycombe. The shop is open 6 days a week. We have a warehouse on the first floor where we can sort and distribute food. This allows us to both run a shop feeding those in need and supply our partner organisations. We are collecting from leading major supermarkets within a 15-mile radius of High Wycombe. We also receive direct deliveries from manufacturers and warehouses. We are also a member of the Independent Food Aid Network (IFAN) which represents independent food banks and distributors across the UK. Our Food Hub model allows us to manage not only residual food but also ambient, chilled, and frozen food. The fact we have both a retail and wholesale distribution ability has been identified by Fare share as one of a few operations in SE England with this capability. Who do we supply? WFH supply products to people unable to access or buy food, those that cannot get Government aid or are unable to survive on the Government’s benefit payments, those who are now suffering from loss of jobs and the self-employed who cannot get benefits, those who cannot access the traditional referral foodbanks. The range of people coming to us for help is growing weekly. Considering what is happening nationally the need for our food and services will continue to grow. We have partnered with other charities and groups and we are supplying residual product to food distribution organisations across Bucks. We are also piloting supplying food to partner organisations who are using the ingredients in hot meals and school food packs. Current scale of operation We have volunteers out each day and evenings collecting residual food. We currently collect more than 250 crates a week from leading supermarkets, warehouses, and retail shops. Food that would otherwise go to landfill. We have a retail food hub open 6 days a week for 3 hours each day We are directly feeding Circa 500 people each week through our retail food hub and partners. In addition, we offer free food outside of the hub . Our wholesale operation is supplying both food parcels and crates of food to our partners. We are also now being asked to supply food to be used in the preparation of cooked meals. Our wholesale operation is growing each week as more organisations draw on our services Funding streams We receive no statutory finding from govt of Council. We rely on donations from public and by asking for a donation from users of our retail hub. We also supply food free to the charities and organisations who are taking food from us each week.