ALDI MALDON

Building communities and strengthening families

We are a no questions asked organisation, hoping to help every person we come in to contact with through The Centre. On Wednesdays, parents and carers are welcome to bring their babies and toddlers to our 'Smalltalk' sessions where we offer craft activities, toys and story time. We currently offer a small selection of snacks as part of this service and we use any fresh food donations to provide filling breakfasts and lunches for anybody attending these sessions. Alongside Smalltalk we run a Baby Bank from the Community Cafe. This gives parents the opportunity to swap items their children have grown out of for items that they need. We offer clothing, books, toys, baby milk and snacks, nappies and wipes and this service is open to anyone in the community to attend. Any food donations we receive will help us to support the families using our services with free meals at The Centre, and also as items they can take away to eat at home to help with the cost-of-living crisis. We have good freezing facilities (fridges and freezers) at The Centre and store cupboard space available for any dry goods donated, so can collect any day of the week. The Centre is now open as a warm hub on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays where we can offer somewhere warm to rest and free refreshments. And finally, The Centre is now open on Saturday mornings offering breakfast to anyone and everyone, but specifically keeping in mind the local children who don't benefit from their school breakfast clubs at the weekend.

We now have our premises as Tiptree Community Hub and as part of the hub services, we provide a community fridge and larder and a pre-loved school uniform service. We have developed relationships with many local supplier's in the village and we have 5 supermarket chains as well as a local Egg farm, Butcher's and Bakers that support our community fridge. We are also fortunate to the support of Wilkin and Sons in the village who make world famous jams and preserves as well as Perrywoods, the renowned garden centre, as well as the support from the neighbourly food suppliers. . We have many enthusiastic volunteers who are passionate about helping promote the prevention of food waste as well as wanting to help those in need. We are gravely concerned about the rising prices for food, energy and fuel which is making many families, elderly and individuals have to choose between eating and fueling their homes and vehicles. We want to bolster the work of our amazing food bank in the village which is stretched to its limits and provide fresh food and advice on recipes to utilse food to its potential. We would welcome all support to access as many supplier's as possible. This includes donations from residents such as vegetables from gardens or excess food for example when they go away on holiday. Tiptree a hub is developing its services and will be a warm safe space, as well as providing a community cafe to help reduce social isolation. Being part of the community hub and fridge is not means tested and is available to all residents. It will not take away from the amazing work of our local food bank, it will add to it by providing fresh food and vegetables.