Lidl Peterborough Lincoln Rd

We are Diamond Hampers, we are dedicated to supporting and helping the most vulnerable in society. We provide food aid to vulnerable families and individuals across Cambridgeshire by supplying food parcels filled with enough to provide meals for a whole week. We support local hostels by supplying them with trays of fresh food items and products ideal for those sleeping on our streets. We support rough sleepers by supplying them with hot meals, snacks, warm clothing, bedding and by helping them to seek the support they need from the relevant services. We provide toys, books, clothing, toiletries and even help to source second hand furniture for those families and individuals that are living in poverty. We support young care leavers and newly housed rough sleepers by providing them with start-up kits to help them at the beginning of their new journey. We supply lots of goodies regularly to various care homes and temporary living facilities across the county and regularly send out “top up bags” and “care packages” for struggling families. Our ethos is to redirect as much food waste as possible but also around the sustainability of people and their families. With this in mind, we make referrals with and for the beneficiaries. We help them to develop longer term solutions to enable them to better sustain their own lives. We promote independence and bridge dignity gaps by providing places and spaces for affordable shopping and access to the essentials in life.

Families First Peterborough CIC works with children, families and young people in Bretton, Peterborough many of whom are economically disadvantaged. We are always looking for support to enable us to sustain the free services that we deliver from our base.  We work with children and young people from low-income families, who are experiencing a variety of challenges including, additional needs, obesity, isolation & loneliness, mental ill-health and social exclusion. Some are care leavers and asylum seekers. Through our services, which include, youth work, open access play sessions, school holiday activities, community events, free family fun days and small group work, we support children and young people at Crofts Corner. Our sessions include free meals and we also have been involved in delivering food parcels to the vulnerable. Any food donations would be welcome. It would also be great if we could access anything additional to support children, youth and families. For example, any toiletries for us to promote good hygiene, Christmas gifts or help towards Christmas celebrations/ Christmas meals, Easter eggs, and teaching of skills you can provide for our youth over Summer or at our regular youth clubs, contribution towards family fun days for inflatables hire and any contribution towards play equipment for our large playground that needs updating.

Helping Whittlesey is a Facebook group that has been running for the last 7 years and has 2.6k members. We became a registered charity in 2023. We help support the community with things ranging from helping people get back on their feet with furniture donations, Christmas toy appeals, rallying around when people are struggling to buy food etc. It's very community based and it's what Whittlesey does best! Working in the recycling sector, we became aware of just how much gets good stuff gets thrown away. Not just food, but furniture to. We decided to make it official and help do our part for the environment. Visiting other community fridges & pantry's to get an idea on the set up and what we would need to do, we know that the Pantry would be a huge asset to our town. From the Facebook page and the anonymous posting, we know that people are sometimes embarrassed about accessing a food bank, but also there are also people who want to help the environment and reduce how much gets thrown away. We needed a venue first! We approached Colin at The Falcon Hotel in Whittlesey, who has let us use his outside storage area. From July 23, with the support from our community in donations, time and trade skills and then securing funding from The Postcode Lottery & Fenland District Council through PECT (Peterborough based environment and sustainability organisations) we have transformed the unit into The Helping Whittlesey Community Pantry. In our first year of opening, we have collected on average 2.5 tonne of food and flowers a month and re distributed it back into the community and helped local good causes. We have also been working with the communities service team for Fenland council as part of their 'closer to communities' commitment, and health professionals such as the social prescribing link worker from Jenner healthcare. This joined approach offers a valuable co-ordinated resource to the community, while also complementing existing community resources and linking to a network of social prescribers. Our aim is that the Community Pantry is exclusive to all in the local community and food that is still usable will be available for anyone to access. We are also working with local people who work with the vulnerable and the youth, to how we can help them with surplus food we receive. We have a donation tin, if people wish to donate to go towards the utility bill they can, but it's not compulsory. As we speak, we are in the process of looking to set up a repair shop, where local skilled craftspeople & tradespeople can put their skills to good use and stop household items going to landfill and re distributing them back into the community.