ALDI THIRSK

We are a charity run preschool setting that facilitates learning opportunities for preschool age children. The children who attend our setting are aged between 2 and 4. We have 16 children on our roll, with 8 children due to move up to the local school at the end of the academic year. The building has been provided to the preschool with the view of continuing to provide early provision to the local rural community that is a major part of the village. The preschool relies heavily on donations and fundraising activities. The committee of trustees is made up of volunteers (who are all parents of the preschool and school). The future of our setting is reliant on the local community for their support and generosity. The preschool is set in a rural location and has provided early years facilities to the local community for over 35 years with many of the previous children now bringing their own children here. The children are keen to learn and explore outside the classroom with links to the local community. The children attend local coffee mornings held at the church opposite to build our strong community links. We hope one day to be able to upgrade our kitchen facilities to enable the children to make items for the coffee mornings. This will help in their learning and also their sense of belonging within the community. We believe in instilling a sense of pride within the children for their achievements. We provide displays of artwork for the church and the children love seeing their pieces. We encourage our children to have a healthy attitude to food. A range of fruit and vegetables is supplied by staff for healthy snacks. As a setting we think developing a fondness and fascination for the outdoors is integral to the children’s understanding of their local community and the natural world. We are hoping to be able to become part of your neighbourly scheme to enable us to provide a wider selection of options to our children. We would also like for any surplus to go towards helping families such as single parents and those with vulnerable children. Our children thrive in our setting and some attend our breakfast club setting as well as after school provision. The preschool is a vital feeder into the village primary school that has less than 50 children and we share strong links with them. It would be wonderful to be able to provide more options at a more cost effective way to the children and families in a way to support not only our setting but also the school and wider community.

Boroughbridge Lions and Boroughbridge Community Care have come together to jointly fund Boroughbridge Community Larder which operates as a non-profit organisation.. However, we couldn't have set up the Larder without the generous offer of a room in which to house it in Boroughbridge Methodist Church. The Community Larder's aim is to reduce food waste and stop good food going to landfill where it would create methane, a greenhouse gas which is bad for the environment. In total we have managed to recruit a total of 36 volunteers from the local community, Boroughbridge Lions and Boroughbridge Community Care and we have assigned them into 3 teams. Team 1 collects surplus food from local supermarkets, independent grocers and farm shops. The allotment society and local householders also bring their glut of fruit & vegetables to us. Team 2 arranges the food on the shelves, fridge and freezer. Team 3 greets and escorts our visitors around the Larder where they select the food they want. We open up the Community Larder every Wednesday from 12.00 - 13.00 and stress that anyone can give and anyone can take food. The Larder has been open 4 years in that time we have redistributed 64 tonnes of food so we are doing our bit for the environment. We receive up to 82 visitors on the day we are open. To date we have had a total of 12245 visitors come to the Larder representing 28445 householders. It is lovely to hear the feedback: "This is a lifeline for me" and "I have made a new friend at the Larder". Each week we post on all of the local villages' Facebook pages reminding everyone that they can come and have a free bag of food and that our aim is to reduce waste in order to help the environment. In addition to this the Larder has attracted interest from a local radio station which has conducted several live interviews informing local residents about the Larder. And it's down to a local online newspaper which put out a plea for a place in which to house the Larder that we managed to secure the Methodist Church - Rev Ian Pruden was in the middle of making Sunday dinner when he read the article and immediately got in touch!

We are a Christian community group reaching out to the community's hurting, including the homeless, disadvantaged, ex prisoners, families in poverty, those needing a hot meal, those in need of food parcels. We have groups at our base too in Northallerton and offer hot meals, and cookery classes together with other support, clothing, benefit advice, parenting to name a few.