ALDI IPSWICH - HINES RD

Promoting understanding and education of all aspects of brain injury and all neuro conditions and providing information, support and services to acquired brain injury survivors, their families and carers in Suffolk and Norfolk.

Mission Ipswich East is a parish in an area of Ipswich which doesn't generally have high levels of deprivation. However, during the Covid crisis of 2020 we became aware that many people living in the area were struggling financially. Often they had enjoyed a reasonable standard of living but due to furlough and job loss many were experiencing high levels of food poverty. We set up a food shop in the Church building in December 2020. Customers can come along on a Wednesday afternoon and access good quality food. They don't have to prove need or be referred. They pay £2 and go home with a bag of food. Most of our supplies come from Fareshare but we welcome other donations of food, cleaning items, toiletries and treats. We thought that our role would end when covid finished but the Cost of Living crisis has increased need. We regularly see 70-100 individual customers each week. They represent over 200 family members. After people have bought their bag of shopping they are invited to stay for a few cup of tea or coffee with biscuits or cake. This gives us a chance to chat to them and discover other problems. We are then able to support them and sign post them to other groups and agencies. We have a direct link with Citizens Advice who attend one a month. The shop is staffed and run entirely by volunteers. We cover all our costs from the £2 payments and any profits will be ploughed back into the shop or used to support our customers in other ways. The Church administrates the money involved but it is kept totally separate.

We are providing cheap affordable food using a unique format. While we have also ran a foodbank for the last five years and will continue to do so, we have found that there is a very significant percentage of those in need who do not use it for various reasons. Our unique BASIC Community Pop-Up shop idea has transformed the lives of many suffering from food insecurity. We now run four a week in Felixstowe (five fortnightly) and have now opened in Ipswich are six locations. The food, which is primarily supermarket excess, is offered to absolutely anybody who wishes to come along. We do not have any means tests or referral needs. They are literally open to anybody at all. A full list of the present locations can be found on our website under 'pop-up shops'. The result of the five years in Felixstowe has been an amazing reduction in the amount of referrals for food bank assistance as people in need know that they can go and choose the food they need from the pop-up's without any invasive questions of any kind. During 2020, despite the pandemic restrictions, we opened at six sites across the town of Ipswich and in 2021 we started to open at sites in more rural area's of Suffolk. To date we are open in Newmarket and in the village of Debenham. More sites are in the advance discussion stage.