ALDI DURHAM - DRAGON LANE

The Fells we support 51 men aged 18 and over who are experiencing homelessness. We offer a range of accommodation including crisis accommodation with one-to-one support, shared semi-independent accommodation and independent living. support around substance misuse, offending, mental health, employment, training, move-on accommodation and debt

Coxhoe and Area Community Pantry's vision is to ensure everyone in Coxhoe and its it's surrounding villages will have access to good food, and help the environment by alleviating food wastage. Our aim is to offer a service which works for the benefit of our local community and we work with residents, local businesses, partners and stakeholders to offer a fit for purpose volunteer operated food resource centre, sourcing and sharing surplus affordable food with those currently experiencing food insecurities, and enabling everyone involved to help our environment by supporting a reduction in food waste. We open twice a week - Monday mornings 9.30am - 11am and Thursday evenings 5pm - 7pm and offer a varied menu determined each week by the donations we receive. We are not discriminatory or judgemental in any way and understand that families and individuals all have different circumstances which finds them having food insecurities; and so we ask our customers to 'pay as they feel' for the food they chose to take. This is done anonymously, in that customers are given a blank envelope when they come in and are asked to contribute however much they can afford (if anything) for the food they receive into the envelope before placing it in a box with all other envelopes We gratefully accept donations of food from our community members and local businesses to help provide this service. We have a storeroom and electrical equipment to ensure we are able to effectively store our donations in a clean and ordered environment, adhering to food guidelines and with food safety being paramount. We highlight any foods which may contain ingredients which may cause food allergies and measure and record food temperatures for our fresh food, as well as monitoring sell by dates If we were to be successful with our application we would use the grant to support our sustainability i.e. help with running costs for our pantry, and for equipment needed to store and distribute food, and for costs associated with storing the food and operating the pantry twice a week, as well as buying any emergency food as well as any emergency food we would need to help support a customer

Burnhope community centre is 'In the Community,for the community'. We offer an extensive range of social, health and wellbeing activities and groups. We have about 40 volunteers who help to deliver our 'in house' groups such as Baby and toddlers, wellbeing cafe, walking group, bingo, social lunches, after school kids clubs, holiday clubs, mindfulness, crafting, supper club and more. All of these volunteers are gaining valuable skills and knowledge such as first aid and food safety for some this is important to increase their employability. We employ a wellbeing coordinator who has set up groups and support for those with chronic pain, bereavement, anxiety and depression. We can't ignore the fact that poverty has a massive impact on wellbeing. We realise that the cost of living rises impacts everyone and food prices were something that everyone was struggling with. We offer healthy food now with several of our groups and set up The Burnhope Pantry a year ago. This is a food club to offer affordable food locally. We have support from Fareshare and other local retailers and buy some foods in bulk to distribute through the pantry. Along with affordable food we are encouraging food preparation, increasing food knowledge and training in recycling, composting and reduction in plastic usage, We employ five part time members of staff and our throughput of previous staff shows that they have gone on to obtain jobs in other local services, schools and businesses. One volunteer is developing her own food business with support from our team. We also enjoy the social aspect of our purpose with a Flower club, sewing bee, Bingo and several opportunities per week to have a cuppa ad a chat. Our holiday clubs baby and toddler group and after school clubs involve several local families and child minders. Some of our teenagers attend a youth group run by Derwentside Youth services and also volunteer to help with the kids work. Social isolation is a problem as the village has only one bus service which runs to Lanchester and Stanley. There are no direct buses to Durham. Adults with learning difficulties and socially isolated elderly people have found friendship and interests through the activities and groups we run. The area has a large number of people with physical and mental health disabilities. They and their carers maintain friendships through the centre. We offer meeting space but are very aware we are becoming to small for our ambitions. Our first step in groth is the addition of a mobile building to house our pantry permanently. This will prevent us needing to move food in and out of a storage cupboard for pantry sessions and will enable us to be open more frequently and at busy times.