Lidl Witham Bridge St

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.

Based in the Grove Shopping Centre, Witham we are a community space where people can come and feel safe. We run a number of groups, training and activities We are a food bank drop off point and have a community fridge Registered Charity in England & Wales - 1188048

We are a no questions asked organisation, hoping to help every person we come in to contact with through The Centre. On Wednesdays, parents and carers are welcome to bring their babies and toddlers to our 'Smalltalk' sessions where we offer craft activities, toys and story time. We currently offer a small selection of snacks as part of this service and we use any fresh food donations to provide filling breakfasts and lunches for anybody attending these sessions. Alongside Smalltalk we run a Baby Bank from the Community Cafe. This gives parents the opportunity to swap items their children have grown out of for items that they need. We offer clothing, books, toys, baby milk and snacks, nappies and wipes and this service is open to anyone in the community to attend. Any food donations we receive will help us to support the families using our services with free meals at The Centre, and also as items they can take away to eat at home to help with the cost-of-living crisis. We have good freezing facilities (fridges and freezers) at The Centre and store cupboard space available for any dry goods donated, so can collect any day of the week. The Centre is now open as a warm hub on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays where we can offer somewhere warm to rest and free refreshments. And finally, The Centre is now open on Saturday mornings offering breakfast to anyone and everyone, but specifically keeping in mind the local children who don't benefit from their school breakfast clubs at the weekend.