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Portishead Youth & Community Centre is passionate about making a difference. We are a community centre by day, and a youth centre by night with something for everyone in our community. We have been running activities and provision for children, young people and families since 1966 and have a long well-established reputation for being a professional service as the largest community space in our town. We are accessible and open to all; however, we have a particular focus on providing for those who would not ordinarily be able to access such opportunities, due to finances or those who need additional support to engage with provision. Portishead Youth & Community Centre is a safe and welcoming place where people can meet, socialise, flourish and grow, or just relax and have fun. Our Centre is inclusive and empowering, supporting our community with a specific focus on activities and services for children and young people, however we are proud to provide something for everyone of all ages. From new-born babies to senior citizens and everyone in between, our aim is to make a difference to all.

The Food Basket is a community fridge operating across Peterborough. We offer local fresh food to the community, reducing food waste and tackling food insecurity. The community fridge is open to all. There is no need to be in receipt of benefits and you do not need a referral or voucher to access this free service, just come along to your chosen session and bring a bag. Due to how we receive our food we cannot guarantee what we will have but in general it is a mix of fresh fruit and vegetables from farms and supermarkets and bakery goods such as bread and cakes. This can help with food costs and stop food going to waste, good for your pocket and the environment! Our Extra Helpings programme offers additional support for our patrons by linking with other organisations with specialist knowledge. We are currently working with Healthy You, Cross Keys Homes, and Woodgreen.

“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.