ALDI DURHAM - DRAGON LANE

We currently operate 5 days a week to over 100 local households, delivering over 1,000 food parcels a month. We have 40 local people involved as volunteers. We appreciate that a regular doorstep visit by our pairs of cheerful volunteers who are interested in their well being can make all the difference to people who struggle with social isolation or poverty. We are a project of the Gilesgate Residents Association. Our volunteers are connected to 4 local churches, Belmont Labour Branch, Belmont Parish Council and Gilesgate Residents Association. When our project started in April 2020, there was no long term plan. Our aim was to reduce social isolation and support people in our local community who were struggling. We helped them get food and other essentials and chatted to people on their doorsteps. We link people up to other local services who can help them. We now collect and redistribute fresh food that cannot be sold and is unwanted by the Foodbanks. We also make jams and chutney using fruit from donations and local allotments. We work with the local food banks, supporting residents to access the service when they are in crisis. We have an organised rota of households we deliver to so we can reach as many local households as possible. We also have a food donation point in Sainsbury's in Belmont. People can self-refer by contacting us or others can refer them. The only criteria is they want to receive a visit from us and will be at home when we call. On Saturday mornings we are at the Durham City Baptist Church in Gilesgate. We have a breakfast club from 9.30-10.30am with a cuppa and toasted crumpets. We welcome new volunteers. Contact us at Gilesgatewellbeing@gmail.com

In the North East alone over 800,000 tonnes of food waste is generated every year. That’s over a third of food produced for us to eat. We think that’s rubbish and we hope you agree. We use our cafe as a platform for campaigning and educating people about food waste. All members of the community are welcome and we get up to 600 people through our Cafe per week. We don’t see this food as ‘waste’, we see beautiful and valuable food, and we see the energy, time, fuel, water and other resources that have gone into making it, packaging it and getting it to our supermarket shelves. Join us in giving it value and stopping this waste of resources.

We are a non for profit community group supporting children and their families in the local area. We offer opportunities and experiences to disadvantaged children and offer support to their families through our new community pantry. This provides families with heavily discounted food, meaning children don’t go hungry due to the cost of living. Surplus food is also donated to our families along with local food banks. Our organisation runs from Ferryhill Sport and Education Centre, another fantastic local charity who we are proud to support and work alongside. Our current users, of over 100 local children, attend our out of school activities where they have the opportunity to try out new activities including sports, cookery, arts, performing and more! Our community pantry will provide these families with discounted food to help with the cost of living crisis. We look forward to being able to help out food in the cupboards of these families. We are working with local primary schools and the one point centre to identify those particularly in need and accept referrals from these organisations. Please see our recent work in the local press, along with financial support from The national lottery community grant plus local town and county councillors. Any surplus food donations we receive through neighboughrly are used in two ways. Some will be added to our community pantry where families can pay a fixed fee to fill their basket, giving the community chance to access needed food at a heavily discounted price. Others will be used directly to families in need giving ready made shopping bags at zero cost to the families.