B&Q Solihull

We are a community center located in the Billesley area of South Birmingham, open to the public from Monday to Friday. Our mission is to provide a safe and welcoming environment for all community members to enjoy. We offer a diverse range of activities and groups, alongside services managed by our dedicated volunteers. Our volunteers operate a weekly Food Pantry, Lunch Club, and Café to support the local community with the rising cost of living. They diligently sort and prepare food parcels and meals, ensuring consistent food provision. Each week, we serve our community by offering a variety of warm and welcoming services. During our food pantry sessions, community members can also access other essential items, such as clothing, shoes, and books, at no cost. Simply take what you need. Through our collaboration with Neighbourly food collections, we are proud to host a Community Surplus Day, which has greatly benefited our community. We remain committed to enhancing our services and facilities by utilizing surplus collections to support the community. Billesley Ark Volunteers is comprised of local residents committed to helping and supporting the community. Established in 2018 by the Malachi Community Trust, BAV was created as part of a pledge to Birmingham City Council to empower local residents to transition from service users to service providers within their own community.

Surplus food we collect from our Neighbourly providers is re-distributed in the community in several locations of Solihull and surrounding areas. Our good cause is supporting people living in poverty, refugees, and asylum seekers. We provide ongoing support to people in need through a number of initiatives, including free English language classes for refugees and surplus food distribution for people living in poverty, among many others. Our distribution model does not involve and has never involved any charges. It is not associated with the Berry's Cafe or Newland's Bishop Farm side of the business. - Education/training - The advancement of health or saving of lives - Disability - Elderly/old people - People with disabilities - Provides services - Provides advocacy/advice/information - Refugees and asylum seekers support - Prevention of poverty

We volunteer our time providing free food parcels to those in financial hardship but also provide cost-priced food/non-food essentials to those facing physical or financial hardship. As an example of how much we do, between 15th March 2020 and 15th September 2020 we successfully provided aid to in excess of 7500+ locals in South Birmingham and Solihull. Our team consists of 3 people, Stephen Palmer, Sapphire Poles and Diana Williams, aswell as a bunch of amazing volunteers! Essentials Delivery was initially started by Stephen and Sapphire on 15th March 2020 when they saw local people on their resident Facebook group were struggling to get basic toiletries and essential food because of shortages caused by various reasons. We responded by going to our local business only wholesalers, buying them essentials and distributing them at cost-price with 0 profit, and delivering them for free too to those who were elderly, disabled or physically unable to go to the shops. Following on from then we have now taken Diana onto our team as we become a permanent lifeline in our area and look to expand further afield, aswell as renaming ourselves to Community Essentials so we can easily grow into offering more services in the near future.