Lidl Haverhill

My partner and I run a Facebook group of 5200+ people where we upload and distribute surplus food from local cafe's/shops and people themselves can upload excess food from their own homes. Please feel free to join our Facebook page to follow our growth, progress or perhaps even come to The Hub and see us! We work with a local preschool which we know through our children to distribute more food around the area in which is resides as it is in a different part of town and therefore opens up to redistribution in another area. We want to expand this to further shops/supermarkets and places to help out local community of Haverhill even more during this cost of living crisis. We operate from Charterhouse Industrial Estate where we have The Hub to enable us to do this in a safer more controlled environment away from our home address so we can focus on the group and increase it beyond it's current capacity with every passing week. We identify people through their locality to Haverhill (surrounding villages included) and their needs are not required to be known as our aim is to save food from going waste, it has the side affect of aiding people within our group too. We do not charge for what we provide however do accept donations towards running costs via a donation bucket and have an Amazon Wishlist for people to purchase items which support the Collections. For us it is about stopping food waste going to landfill and therefore any monetary return to us personally wouldn't sit right with us. We used to collect surplus food and distribute it through the Olio app for Tesco, Iceland and a few other smaller outlets however since January 2023 we have grown from there to use fare share and neighbourly but for us this is only the beginning of something which we want to increase as time goes on. A few Christmas's ago we had an article done on us by a local newspaper, the link for which is below. https://www.suffolknews.co.uk/haverhill/news/scheme-s-food-waste-heroes-help-to-feed-people-in-need-9233684/ We work with our kids preschool (Castlefields) who are part of Neighbourly, to collect from Aldi, lidl, sainsburys, B and Q so that they get all fresh produce/items that can be used within the preschool setting and we distribute what cannot be used there through the Facebook group. This is something that we are keen to continue to do and support. Outside of Neighbourly we also collect from Tesco, Waitrose, Bookers, Co-Op and other smaller shops which have local out reaches.

Our Hub groups are often a lifeline for vulnerable adults in the county, offering social activities, friendship opportunities and "a place to go". The Befriending Scheme creates friendship and learning opportunities for adults from vulnerable groups as well as our existing members with learning disabilities. We also offer engaging volunteering opportunities with extra support for those who need it. Our Ipswich Hub is always lively, full of fun and friendship and our members love to enjoy food together. Our Hub improves the lives of people who are elderly or rurally isolated or who have a mild mental health illness. We achieve this by giving them the chance to be part of a fun, accessible group and to make friends. We'd love you to get involved in our groups as a volunteer. You'll help with running the engaging sessions, collecting and preparing food and tidying away afterwards. We're also looking for food donations to make sure our members are eating properly. Financial donations will go towards activities that our members can enjoy. Please do get in touch via our News Feed - we'd be delighted to hear from you!

Memories Are Golden brings together individuals living with dementia and those who may be at risk of social isolation from families, friends, and their communities. Our community hub provides a safe space to socialise, build friendships as well as providing meaningful activities, entertainment, and events, to improve wellbeing and reduce isolation. All attendees receive refreshments and a 2-course hot lunch to help those that do not receive a hot meal in the day.