M&S Congleton

We are an zero waste group who focus on the following 3 main areas: *Community Gardening and Promotion of Grow Your Own *Recycling Over 35 Hard to Recycle Items *Surplus Food, Community Deli, Clothes and Household Items We support on average 150 people a day with food for free and offer clothes to people in need for free also. People from all backgrounds can access our community shop and no referral is needed. It is for all of our community. Donations are accepted but not mandatory and this is clear to all who visit us. Soon we will be opening our soup kicthen, which will be using our overstock of surplus vegetables.. We offer surplus food from our community shop 6 days a week. We have the first community fridge and freezer in Cheshire East. We also take surplus food from local growers of excess fruits & vegetables. Large litter picks are arranged each month. Money raised all goes back into making more green spaces within our town and surrounding areas, helping the local community, running the Hive and shop where we offer free classes and talks.

At Adelaide Heath Academy We: Every pupil at the school has the right and the responsibility to learn in a safe and supportive environment that inspires their learning Learning can make a positive difference to everyone’s life Partnerships with others will support improvement for pupils across the school and for our community Working together we can face any challenge High ambitions for all pupils and staff will achieve positive results Everyone can learn from a mistake when they take responsibility for putting it right To support the above we have set up a food and resources bank to support families and pupils who are in need. There for we would be very grateful to receive food and non food items that we can distribute according to need of our famillies.

The Foodbank has been in operation for the past decade in our local area based at the New Life Church centre. People helped are referred from a great network of teams we have built relationships with over the years e.g. housing associations, social services, mental health teams, job centre, NHS teams, schools, drugs team and so on. The foodbank is supported by volunteer help during the week at certain times. It is always a great challenge securing sufficient food to meet the demands which often change in reaction to changes to Welfare changes, employment related (low pay, zero contracts or contracted work), or social issues like domestic violence, relationship issues, health issues and so on. The foodbank integrates with the many other services we freely offer to address social problems, parenting, employment, mental health issues and so on. *During the current 2020 COVID-19 outbreak we are continuing to support our community as necessary - with the option of deliveries to those who are isolated at home* **For those interested in volunteering - thank you - we have had to restrict numbers of people on the premises during the lock-downs, and hope to involve more volunteers as lock-down eases**