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

Based in Houghton le springs, we are temporarily working ftom 15 St Michaels We are a community based organisation dedicated to helping vulnerable persons in the community such as asylum seekers, residents of the YMCA and working with the YMCA by collecting surplus and food donations from location shops such as Lidl and others. We d nit charge anyone for our services as all our funding and expenses comes ftom pocket. We organise fun days and team bonding and building activities too. Being aware of the challenges of societal lives, we hope to bring a little relief and succour to our community. We have gotten any press coverages just yet. As we are growing our brand and services hence we require an operational vehicle and office space to operate from. We are building some synergy and working relationships with other local groups but that is at the teething phase.

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.