ALDI FLINT

The Buckley Community Fridge project involves the setting up of a Community Fridge which is more than just a response to food poverty in that it also aims to reduce food waste and promote a more cohesive community spirit by sharing excess food. A Community Fridge differs from the food bank as it is open to all. Currently open on a Thursday morning from 10-11.30am. Buckley Community Fridge collective has members from the churches in the town, local councillors, and concerned individuals who have committed themselves to set up and deliver the project. The collective has the support of Buckley Town Council who have granted them the use of a suite of rooms on the right hand side of the old library building . The Community Fridge will be open twice a week and staffed by volunteers will have completed a food safety course and any other appropriate training. The rooms will be registered with Flintshire County Council as a food business and therefore be given a food safety rating. Appropriate public liability insurance will be put in place. The rooms will be equipped with a lockable fridge and freezer and furnished with secure storage, as well as tables and chairs for use when open to the public. The collective is registered with the Community Fridge Network, and now has an agreed constitution and a working committee. The collective is also appealing to the community for donations towards its work and for volunteers to come forward.

We have two main priorities, waste reduction and anti poverty so we tackle poverty sustainably, reducing single use waste and preventing unnecessary items from entering landfill. We are passionate about our environment and we are passionate about people. We provide reusable sanitary products to eliminate period poverty for the recipients, with products lasting for upwards of a decade. We currently cover Flintshire & Wrexham. We collect and deliver fresh, nutritious food from store to door, 7 days a week; tackling in work poverty, hunger, food waste and malnutrition. Christmas Eve 2023 saw us provide food to over 26,000 people; using surplus food that would have perished in warehouses during the holiday store closures. Between 24-31st December 2023, we redistributed over 110 tonnes of surplus food! We collect, restore and redistribute baby essentials to those unable to afford them. We support and enable the use of reusable nappies for all, providing them for free for those in need, for as long as required. We currently actively cover Denbighshire, Flintshire and Wrexham but support can be accessed from residents of bordering counties. We impose no criteria as we believe it takes a significant amount of pride swallowing to ask for help. We enable beneficiaries to retain their dignity by providing whichever service is required anonymously. We’re not too sure if we’re innovators or a bit bonkers but it works! History: Wrexham Nappy Library was born in November 2015 to aid and enable the use of real nappies for people in need in the Wrexham County. This began with free trials of a variety of types of nappy with full support and guidance. Within a short period of time, newer versions of brands were released. Now, it is essential to keep trial kits up to date. As a result, we were left with a huge surplus of obsolete but perfectly functional nappies which we decided to offer to struggling families for as long as they needed, free of charge, with the simple request that upon cessation of use, they're returned to benefit another family. We began tackling period poverty in 2016, initially by adding menstrual cups to long term loan kits but quickly revised our methods and make them available to all. We commenced food deliveries in 2017 to tackle hunger discreetly, and to divert food waste from landfill. We also get infrequent donations of baby clothes and goods which are passed on for free to families who need them - returns of these items are not requested, instead we politely ask the families to pay them forward.

Neo Community cafe is working hard to save a centre in the heart of the Beaconsfield community Rockferry delivering services for over two decades. The Beaconsfield Community House has been opening its doors for a kids youth club and community bingo for residents for the last 15 years. Neo delivers an action-packed programme of activities including arts, craft, games, cookery and fundays, as well as providing healthy and nutritious breakfast and lunches to children and adults. During the school holidays we aim to use 90% surplus/donated food, with most of our creations packed full of fruit and vegetables to ensure children get their five a day. At Beaconsfield Neo is in the process of setting up, a community clothes swap that will enable families to access clothes (secondhand or new) for both adults and children as suitable clothing can be out of reach to many on a restricted or low income. Our community food bank offers crisis support to people who might have reached their quota with their foodbank and still find themselves in hardship. The cafe runs on a 'Pay As You Feel' basis, offering meals which can be paid for in a number of ways, including money or volunteer time. There are also plans to introduce a number of workshops and feel-good programmes once the centre is back in full swing.