Lidl Squires Gate

Blackpool Food Bank has been in existence since February 2012 and has undergone considerable growth to become a supplier of food to a network of 100+ partner organisations across the Fylde Coast. These partner organisations include statutory services such as adult and child social care, schools, nurseries, NHS, housing services, third sector organisations, groups who support homeless and rough sleepers, young carers, children and baby community groups, faith sector and community groups, hostels, and substance misuse recovery centres. We also provide an emergency food parcel service, working in collaboration with professionals such as the Citizens Advice Centre, Blackpool Council, and NHS, crisis teams to support families and individuals in desperation. We also host network meetings with our partners to coordinate information and empower the “front line” to enable them to further support the end user. The Charity's vision is to see communities where everyone has access to fresh, nourishing food, and no food goes to waste. The Big Food Project rescues edible, nutritious, surplus food and redistributes it to over 8,0000 people across our network every month. Our main objectives are: • To build a sustainable organisation by making the best use of our human, physical, and financial resources. • To grow and develop Blackpool’s resilience with network leadership and establish/ lead a collaborative approach to address food insecurity. • To develop our supply chain and relationships with the back of supply chain partners to rescue and repurpose larger quantities of food to minimize food waste.

We provide 24hr support to vulnerable adults aged over 18years of age. We work with them on a 1:1 basis to address their immediate needs and also identify opportunities for them to reach their potential. We continue to support them once in their own tenancies for a period of 6 months. We promote a community feel within the Project and encourage our service users to be involved in the day to day meal preparation, gardening, painting and general day to day running of the project. This develops their independent living skills whilst also making the place more homely and encouraging ownership and service user involvement.

Wesley’s Community Café & Larder operate from Church Road Methodist Church Community Hub, Lytham St Annes. Paul Caddy, Head of Wesley’s Community Café, has around 40 volunteers staffing the Café, Larder & daily surplus food collections from our food donation partners (currently Tesco Local and, via Neighbourly, Sainsbury's stores in Lytham St Annes). This food is provided free of charge and is used to supply the Café & Larder. Approximately £800/month of food is also purchased through FareShare Community Trust, and local suppliers. The Café creates substantial quality meals for local people. Open 4 days/week (closed Wednesday), food & refreshments are free – a boon to those who use it and need it. We serve around 1000 people/month in the café with breakfasts from 09:30 a.m. plus café style menu 11:00 a.m. till 03:30 p.m. The Café transforms food collections plus purchased food into an estimated added value of £8,000 delivered to Wesley’s clients. As well as nutritious and wholesome cooked food, the Café provides teaching in cookery skills by Paul, helping to improve the lives of local and needy people by enabling them to cook for themselves. The Café also provides a warm, welcoming, safe, non-denominational, and hospitable venue for people to dine, meet for some company, and share a cup of tea – without any time pressure (such as might be experienced in a profit-making café). Wesley's is non-judgemental and offers a neighbourhood/village atmosphere. Many who have learned to cook have then become volunteers themselves. Indeed, several volunteers have gone on to gain employment in catering. How the project began – in Paul’s words, “It started with a pan of soup”. He began serving bowls of soup to those that needed it. The locals’ needs have simply evolved naturally from this to where we are now. These needs continue to grow. For Christmas 2023 Wesley’s Café provided 100 full traditional Christmas dinners for those who would otherwise have gone without. In sustainability terms, we are committed to waste recycling. Café waste is routinely recycled into compost via one volunteer, an allotment holder, who has actually used it to grow produce, then donated back to the café, so completing a sustainable cycle. We will use food donations to enrich people’s lives by making the difference between going hungry, and not, for local families and individuals in need. Our Larder offers a wide range of food items to local families, refugee population and individuals living alone. We estimate it benefits at least 220 people/week, plus households. Wesley's Larder is open Monday to Friday. We also provide four "Off-site" food tables outside two churches and two Children's playgroups, estimated usage is around 30 people per site = 120+ plus households. To date, FareShare impact statistics for Tesco free food collections for Wesley’s show:- total no. of collections = 6910; kilogrammes of collected food = 100250; meals equivalent = 240982; and CO2 saving = 313620.