ALDI CARDIFF - DARTINGTON DRIVE

We love our city of Cardiff. We believe eliminating food poverty is within our grasp. We believe that empowering individuals, and groups to believe that their simple contribution can make a huge difference, is key. Food poverty is a reality. It’s in every corner of society. A common topic of conversation in our communities and culture. Frequently discussed, researched, investigated, but it continues. At Food4All we operate to make it simple for any willing volunteers to bring food to anyone who can benefit from it. Our volunteers might work in schools, volunteer with community groups, support those elderly or vulnerable, work within schools, mosques, churches, leisure centres! The list goes on and whether big or small, we simply help them all. Volunteers register with the Food4All leadership team. We discuss their community involvement and agree on a weekly plan of food collections. The volunteers are then linked with individual local stores, and supported by the Food4All team to collect donated food on a weekly basis. As a team of around 30 volunteers, we all work together to share, support and encourage. We work 365 days of the year. We support Food Banks, support schools by supplying food for their breakfast clubs, parent cookery classes; food for pensioners in retirement accommodation, asylum seekers and refugees as well as families in need who have vulnerable family members and much more, together reaching hundreds of households each week in Cardiff and the surrounding areas. We are grateful for every single crate, every loaf of bread, every bag of salad, every croissant! Each item represents our opportunity and hope that in sharing, maybe, just maybe one person that day will have a reason to hope. That they would know they are not alone, and that they too would have a hope for the future. Throughout the week: Free food available to the community from Al-Ikhlas Mosque, Cardiff, where individuals and families come together and help themselves to whatever they need in a warm and friendly environment. Deliver food parcels to the breakfast club in Splott as well as a the Star centre. Also providing vital food supplies to those in need in the Ely area of Cardiff via the Dusty Forge and St Vincent's Church. Providing food to support parents at cookery classes and the breakfast club at Cathays High School, supporting families in need. Supporting individuals and families in need in the deprived inner city areas of Cardiff (Splott, Adamsdown and Tremorfa) by delivering directly to the Mosques to support their food markets as well as individual families. Saturday: Fortnightly free food markets running in Llanishen. Supported by Llanishen Baptist church and Llanishen Catholic Church. Providing essential food support for pensioners in Llanbradach, Rhondda Cynon Taff. Free food open to the community from both Al Manar and Mosque Omar where people come together and help themselves to whatever they need.

Al-Ikhlas Culture and Education Centre has been established since 2013. We are located in the heart of Adamsdown, not only does it serve the local residents but it is also within walking distance of Lynx House, a refugee centre housing refugees and asylum seekers from the Asian, Middle east and African Continents. This allows us to provide them with vital services they need, and we do our best to make them feel at home with us and bring them a sense of community. During a community consultation we found that one area that many felt they are struggling with is food; especially for families with children. 89% stated that they would attend a food bank so that they are able to feed their families. With 99% expressing their preference that the Centre has its own foodbank. The statistics for the local area show that 45% of pupils attending Adamsdown Primary School are eligible for free school meals, which is well above the national average. Clearly indicating to us that the local community are from low income families and need more support. We strongly feel that having access to a foodbank can contribute to enabling more people to fulfill their potential by working to address issues at the earliest possibility. The foodbank has been running now for just one month and we have been inundated with service users, handing out over 60 vouchers in this short period of time. As a result we are struggling to keep up with the demand for food and are concerned we will have to begin turning people away. We hope that with support we can continue to provide this service and help those struggling with a very much needed necessity for them and their families.

Our group was set up in 2010 by a group of mums who wanted to do more for our kids on our estate. We do a range of events throughout the year and trips. We try to raise funds through our events but as most of us are on low incomes this isn't easy. We have lots of families on our estate being affected by the switch over to Universal Credit so they will be very glad of help with donated food. We can also use the donated food to promote health eating to families and teach people how to cook. One of our volunteers dawn trained as a cook so she is happy to lead on this, We work closely with Wales & West Housing, ACE (Action for Caerau & Ely) and the Hub.