M&S Chelmsford Westway

Community groups for all ages: - soft play (<5 years) and affordable community cafe (warm spaces) - Toddler group - Messy Church (crafts, games, stories, hot lunch) - after school clubs - weekly lunch club for the elderly - dementia group - bereavement support group - weekly social group for the elderly - eco church Food for low income families, food to reduce wastage. Our Fareshare food and pantry are very highly valued by our low income community in which we are situated. (Westlands Estate, Chelmsford) We are already part of the fareshare scheme and do weekly collections from Tesco. We have a food larder/ pantry which is accessible 24/7.

Building communities and strengthening families

The objective of the charity is the relief of poverty, both material and emotional in England & Wales and abroad through: the person to person involvement of its voluntary members engaged in befriending and through 'special works' , which are projects established to address specific needs in the local community. We are the branch (known as a Conference) based in Springfield, Chelmsford. We work with families on low income or on benefits and provide regular food parcels, using the food collected from Neighbourly. We also small stock of emergency parcels ready to be delivered to people who are being moved into temporary accommodation, again using food donations collected from stores using the Neighbourly scheme. All food parcels are given free of charge and any surplus food is donated to The Little Free Pantry scheme. Every Christmas and New Year we collect food from supermarkets, with over 200 families provided for last year thanks to a large group of volunteers giving up their time. Some of the food collected this summer will be distributed at our Family Fun Day, for children who will not have a holiday. We work closely with other charities across Chelmsford and share surplus food with them. This means that collected food does not go to waste.