M&S Worthing

Saving food from being wasted and redistributing it free of charge to those who need it in the local community

After several years of working in the local community Storm now has the opportunity to develop an allotment project. For 8 years now we have been gardening in the town centre on various plots of land given to us by the local council - mixing up the planting with flowers and vegetables and brightening up the plots with various knitted items produced by our Make n Munch group. We have also been feeding members of the local rough sleeping and insecurely housed community for the last 6 years - initially running a soup run, laterally offering a hot meal once a week and for the third year running coordinating and hosting one night a week of Worthing's Winter Night Shelter. Since all the changes that Covid brought which meant that voluntary groups are no longer able to run Shelters, we now run a twice weekly food run which is open to anyone in need. We have built a good reputation among the local community and been able to offer opportunities to the people we feed to get involved in some of our other projects - knitting, gardening, litter picking, Recovery Course. Now we have a brilliant opportunity to manage an allotment for Storm. This will enable us to build relationships, offer real opportunities for people to learn skills, be part of a great team and produce food that can then be cooked, eaten and served to others.

Hello, We are a registered charity and part of SHOUT WSK which stands for Street Homeless Outreach Worthing Soup Kitchen. We have been working in the Worthing area for over 8 years with both the homeless community and those in need. This year (2021) in April we started to work from the Lovett Centre in Maybridge Square as a pop up Food Bank in order to reach people and families who had been socially excluded and isolated due to Covid - 19. Many were afraid to go out in their community - our pop up food bank gave them a reason to go outside and start to slowly reintegrate within society. The group which has benefited the most from this approach has been our young Mums and families - the change has been dramatic and life altering for some. Our clients now look forward to Saturdays. There is a playground next door which many of the children who attend visit as well as meeting up with their new found friends. Many other problems have come to light which we have been able to assist with. From acquiring fridge/freezers to furniture, bedding clothes and help with benefits. Our Saturdays have become a point of contact for those in the local area. We have built up trust in what is often a difficult community to reach. This year alone we have run not just the pop up food bank but also a uniform shop and our next venture is a Halloween party for all of the families we support. This will be followed by Christmas Hampers throughout the month of December. Our work is ongoing. We have built connections with Community House and Worthing Homes and are continuing to act as a gateway to this community in Worthing. We are here to help and may always be contacted via our website below or facebook pages.