ALDI MACCLESFIELD

I have recently opened a Community Fridge which I run from my house. It is a new shed that contains a fridge, freezer and shelving so we can store foods correctly that can be used by the local people in our village and surrounding areas. I work closely with other local businesses in the village too. All the services I provide are free. Before Christmas my children and a couple of volunteers made up food boxes and delivered these to around 50 houses in our local village which everyone appreciated. We have around 100-150 people drop by each week that take the food, and certainly a demand for it in our area. We have a parish magazine that I was mentioned in last month and this next month now my shed is fully open(we’ve had a new tarmac drive) so had to just adjust and work round this!) they have written a piece about me to go in Aprils edition. Here are some photos attached of the shed and my little boy helping me in his wheel chair deliver the food boxes before Xmas. Also a photo of me with all the potatoes we saved from sainsburys before Xmas when the other charities were closed so they asked me if I could take them. Another photo attached of inside my shed with the fridge and freezer and the shelving - currently empty but will be full of bread later!

The Whirley School Association (WSA) is a registered charity and is Whirley Primary School’s Parent Teacher Association. The WSA is a very active organisation of volunteers who arrange events throughout the year to raise money to help improve our children’s time at Whirley Primary School. The WSA’s motto is “fun and fund-raising”. The WSA organises a wide range of fund-raising events and activities ranging from discos, fairs, parent band nights, bingo, quiz nights, movie nights and much more and in the 2023-2024 academic year the WSA donated over £8000 for additional school resources. We actively encourage parents and grandparents to get involved as either a member of the committee and / or as a helper at events. Committee meetings are generally held once per month at the school. Our general email address is whirleywsa@gmail.com

Our aims and values in this project are; Reducing the amount of food that goes to waste Around 15 million tonnes of food is wasted every year in the UK alone, and the vast majority of that food is perfectly edible. The lowest carbon, most sustainable thing we can do with food that is going to go to waste is put it in a belly, any belly, rather than a bin, any bin (landfill, anaerobic digestion, animal feed, or compost). For every tonne of food that we save from going to waste, we save around 4.2 tonnes of CO2e from being emitted, and around 10% of the UK’s carbon footprint comes from food that is produced but never eaten. Providing access to enough food and great food for all Open Kitchen MCR is, among many other things, a live experiment in alternative economic models. The project operated for 3 years on a pay-as-you-feel basis, inviting members of the public to decide how much they would pay for their meal in a huge range of settings. While this model had huge social and environmental positives, it proved financially unsustainable. Open Kitchen MCR’s catering social enterprise operates on a pay-it-forward basis. The project offers catering at set prices, with one rate for private and corporate customers, a lower rate for established not-for-profit groups, and free or heavily subsidised catering for grassroots groups who are supporting vulnerable adults. Dignity, choice and social inclusion - a positive community future Our pay-as-you-feel model (employed at our city centre restaurant, open from Sep 2017 - Aug 2018) offered an innovative, inclusive model that deliberately bucked the trend towards dedicated “food poverty project” models. There are a number of projects that target people in food poverty, and in our current economic climate they are essential. However, the fact remains that by targeting people in food poverty, we also further separate and isolate them. Open Kitchen MCR aims to develop an alternative model that can evolve along side these projects, and offer a more inclusive option to bring a wider range of people together. Unfortunately, we found it wasn’t possible to support pay-as-you-feel financially, for a range of reasons. Our current outside catering venture operates on a pay-it-forward model, and supports grassroots groups that offer dignity, choice and support to vulnerable adults. We hope to continue our experiment into alternative economic models, and trial a new socially inclusive cafe / restaurant space in 2020.