M&S Newton Mearns

Blether has a community fridge, a community larder and a community shop selling locally grown fresh food at low cost. We are based in the old Totnosh building at 103 Main Street, Neilston. One of our aims is to remove the stigma from people accessing free food and to increase the dignity involved, for these reasons anyone can access our services and food, you don't need to be referred. We provide a physical location for third sector organisations and council bodies to provide support to residents in the community. Including mental health charities. We're committed to helping people reduce food waste and to access free and low cost locally grown food in a dignified manner. We run workshops in ways to preserve food, to use up left overs , to create natural bath products, seed paper cards. Currently all our services are available for free. At some point in the future we will create a small element of a shop selling locally grown fresh food which will be subsidised. We have lots of photos available of our work so far on our social media channels. We have already partnered with a few local organisations and can ask them for references if required. We have also been visited by our local MSP.

We offer a number of wellbeing services, such as free therapy, information and support to anyone affected by childhood trauma or abuse, and those affected by cancer. With these wellbeing aims in mind we have also established our Share Alike project. This is open to all in our community for free, supporting anyone in need by offering a community wardrobe, community fridge, free brunch club and a food bank. Within and outside our normal office hours we also help in emergencies for local families directly and via referrals from different types of organisations, such as women's aid. We give families immediate assistance with free food and clothing, and help via our donations to help them reestablish a home after fleeing or losing theirs. All our staff are volunteers and offer some classes and services to the general public for a small donation. This means we both keep SAVI Kids open for those who need help after childhood trama and abuse, while making alternative health/support services more accessible to all.

To provide good quality early years education and childcare for all , but essentially for socially deprived and disadvantaged families with the intention that in future years this will help to address wider contexts such as poverty and social justice issues. Many of our families are subject to huge environmental factors that impact on their day to day life and the Nursery is often their only means of stability.