ALDI HARLOW

Our aim is to offer ongoing support through emergency food parcels, basic hygiene essentials and a range of mental and wellbeing support to families, vulnerable adults, schools and the general community struggling to stay afloat. As a grassroots community project we are primarily staffed by local volunteers of diverse groups across the town which makes our services completely free and open to anyone who needs this the extra help. We empower residents to offer their time as volunteers who come together to simply inspire, invigorate and entice others out of their homes to join in various activities, share a coffee through our forums, make new connections and take their minds off worrying - whether young or old, shy or socially awkward, new to the area, retired, divorced, feel restricted, lonely or isolated - our services pride in making our wider user network feel part of the wider community. Since July 2017, we have been able to support over 5k families and delivered well over 12k food parcels both within and beyond Harlow

We are already part of the Fare Share food scheme and Greggs surplus where we distribute food which would of been thrown away to our families in our preschool. We feel strongly about teaching our children how not to waste food as well as educate our families on what they can do with the food we give them. Being part of neighbourly will helps us to further our goal of redistributing food which would of gone to waste and help our families save money. We also work with a local charity Community Embrace which is a Community Food Pantry where we signpost our families too. We work with Greggs to help combat food waste from one of their local stores. We set all of this surplus food out on tables and in fridges and freezers for the parents at the preschool to help themselves Free of charge. We are in an area of deprivation so this food is a huge help to all of our families especially during the cost of living crisis. Any help with more food donations will always be appreciated.

Every day, people go hungry in the UK for all kinds of reasons, from changes and delays in the benefits system to redundancy to receiving an unexpectedly large bill for a major repair. A simple box of food makes a big difference, with foodbanks helping prevent crime, housing loss, family breakdown and mental health problems. Harlow Foodbank relies on the support of local people, businesses and communities to help alleviate poverty and hunger in our community. Food donations Non-perishable in-date food is donated by the public at places across the local community, such as schools,churches and businesses, as well as supermarket collection points. It is then sorted and packed into boxes by volunteers, ready to be given to people in need. Food vouchers Care professionals such as doctors, health visitors, schools and social workers identify people in crisis and issue them with a foodbank voucher. They can exchange this voucher for a foodbank parcel of three days’ nutritionally balanced, non-perishable food. The help we give… Our foodbanks offers a lot more than food. Our volunteers offer a listening ear to clients over a warm drink, and signpost people to other charities and agencies who can help resolve the underlying cause of the crisis. There are many ways to help The Trussell Trust as a volunteer from helping at collection points, to stock-taking and audits, to helping us refurbish our premises. We can continue supporting people in crisis thanks to passionate people giving their time to help their hungry neighbours. Please get involved by following our project page and share this project with your friends and followers using the social icons on this page. Click the volunteering tab above to see our upcoming volunteer events and sign up to help us tackle food poverty together.