Lidl Christchurch

We run a Community Fridge from Townsend Community Centre. Running alongside the Fridge project we offer coffee mornings, craft club, free clothes, weekly cooking workshops which all take place at Townsend Community Centre. The Community Fridge abides by the same environmental health standards for food safety as other food businesses. Combined with storage for ambient food, it is stocked with surplus food from supermarkets, local shops and other food businesses as well as donations from local people. Everyone is welcome to take food, the focus being on sharing good food and ensuring it is eaten. Caroline Green, Community Liaison Officer for Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole Council said “A successful Community Fridge deals with so many different issues at the same time. Community Fridges are a fantastic way to deal with surplus food which has a huge impact on the environment, they can help people in food poverty to access free food and they are a chance to bring the community together over a shared resource. We are really excited to have launched the first Community Fridge in Bournemouth at Townsend Community Centre. The project is open Monday - Friday from 9-11.30am inside the Centre. Outside we have an external fridge which can be accessed 24/7. Anne Melly, Chair of the Townsend Community Growers said "The Growers are really supportive of the Fridge project. The Growers regularly grow fresh fruit and vegetables which are then shared via the Fridge.” The Fridge project regularly works with the charity, The Friendly Food Club. Cooking workshops and demos are held using food from the Fridge #wastenotwabtnot. To find out more about the Townsend Community Fridge contact caroline.green@bcpcouncil.gov.uk or 01202 301556.

We are a non-profit food bank centred around Ferndown and West Moors, in Dorset. Our Team of volunteers provide daily food parcels to families in food poverty around the area. We were originally based around Sainsbury's Ferndown store, but over the years and through Neighbourly we have expanded to accept donations from other companies like, Southern Co-op, Aldi, Lidl, and M&S. That said, anyone wishing to donate to the Food Project can give items in arrangement with us, as log as the items can satisfy our food handling policy and can be distributed immediately, as we have no storage facilities. Our Partner stores allow us to access the non-sellable items for redistribution in the food banks, and our volunteers sort and deliver the food straight to the families in need. This partnership has endured over a decade of co-operation, helping families with disabilities as well as low-income households through many a rough time in their lives, for as long as it takes for them to get back on their feet. Families in need are referred to us through various local organisations, from churches to community help groups and we are careful to identify those in real need. We are always on the lookout for more volunteers, Feel free to contact us on our Facebook page or at: ferndownfoodproject@gmail.com for more information!

Surplus Kitchen incorporates Redistribution, Community, & Education through it's projects. Redistribution - We collect surplus goods from supermarkets which we use in our projects and through our main partner, Winton Parkstone Christadelphian Pantry (WPCP) who serve around 200-250 people a week. Community - Through The Bread Bin project we distribute surplus bakery products into local communities. Education - We want to show how to save food from being wasted, and how to produce something edible and yummy with it. The Bread Bin is a free community bakery which saves bakery products from being thrown out as waste by supermarkets, and distributes them into local communities. In it's first year it saved 8.8 tonnes of surplus bakery, and that number continues to grow. It currently has 5 public access locations across BCP which are open to the public, and it's on the Access To Food Map.