M&S Stevenage (3023)

In Partnership with Our Lady Immaculate Catholic Church we are opening a "My Local Pantry" to support local families in North Herts. We believe that nobody should go hungry. The Pantry is based on a Social Supermarket model where the community become members and for a small weekly fee they are able to shop at affordable prices enabling them to become more financially sustainable. We will also be offering debt, housing advice and other support services where needed. We will also have healthy eating/budget recipe cards available to help broaden food choices. We want to give away as much fruit, veg and nutritious food as possible. This is not a foodbank model but is a model aimed at reducing food insecurity. We will be open on a Friday from 2-4pm and Saturday 1-3pm and we will be operating in the Scout Hut in the carpark of the Catholic Church. We need plenty of fresh and chilled foods, flowers, plants, bread etc. "Best before" dates are fine but we can't take any "use by" dates. We are a registered food business and have corporate fridges & freezers to store the food.

Best Before Cafe rescues surplus and unsold food from local supermarkets and offers it to the community for donations of money, time or skills. The cafe runs on a weekly basis in two local community halls providing refreshments for all of our community and a 'food boutique'. The food boutique is where our customers can select food to take away with them. Our aim is to highlight the issue of needless food waste and also to feed our whole community. (NB: Donations are put back into the cafe to cover running costs and therefore make it a sustainable venture.)

The foodshed started several years ago as a result of various people and referrals from charities for people who were struggling or in need. These people started coming to our attention through the CAP centre we also run where we work with people to get out of debt, YMCA space who were using our office space and other referrals from Social Services, CAB and other people in the community. Because of how we are set up, we found people started to access us quite quickly. We are able to spend time getting to know people who are often quite isolated, homeless and in difficult situations. As a result of the support we have been able to give, we have seen many people come into various community groups, become volunteers themselves and start the journey out of poverty and in some cases into employment and becoming debt free. We give away hundreds of bags of food every month to people in Stevenage. However, finding a consistent and reliable source of food donations can be sometimes challenging. We also have a clothing bank and a toy bank where we give away brand new clothes to those who are homeless and in need. We work closely with people to navigate their way out of poverty and into employment, sometimes teams of volunteers can take part in projects meeting the needs of people and communities around us spreading kindness and compassion.