The Co-operative Food - Parkstone, Penn Hill Avenue

The average UK family wastes £810 a year by throwing away food and drink, and £3 billion is wasted by food sectors. Community Fridges help tackle food waste by redistributing food from households and businesses to the community. Branksome Community Fridge is located in Branksome Library and Rossmore Community Fridge is located in Rossmore Library, both in Poole and are run by a team of community minded volunteers. It serves the people of Branksome by providing good quality food that would otherwise have been thrown away.

Poole Waste Not Want Not, (PWNWN) is a registered charity supplying food to members of the community to those people and their families that have insufficient disposable income and need support in coping with life. Every day of the week we collect food from different supermarkets and display it in our shop on the High Street. All food surplus collection is FREE to our members, giving them nutrition choices that they may not be able to afford. We operate Monday to Saturday from 10.30. a.m. – 3 p.m. This enables our registered members the choice of food, fresh fruits, vegetables, frozen, chilled, toiletries, and treats they would not normally be able to afford. This leads to a greater sense of dignity, choice, and control and facilitates budgeting skills. As well as providing access to affordable food PWNWN is developing other services such as menu planning, budgeting, and other activities to meet the needs of our client group and signposting if necessary. PWNWN relies heavily on volunteers (currently 32) who help with food collection, sorting, shelve stacking, till operations, pricing and labelling of frozen food, etc. Many of these are clients/users and PWNWN sees that providing volunteering opportunities, support and training can help with increasing confidence, self-esteem, and skills, so assisting in an improvement in their health, well-being, life, and working circumstances. Therefore, volunteers will be provided with structured support and direction to ensure they achieve real positive experiences and outcomes from their volunteering. Social supermarket: We collect surplus food from our local supermarkets to reduce food waste and then display it Free alongside our other food. Members can then visit the shop during opening times, chose what food they wish, and then take it to the till where they are asked to donate the suggested sums displayed on the shelves (about50/ 75% off the normal retail price). This leads to a greater sense of dignity, choice, and control and facilitates budgeting skills. As well as providing access to affordable food PWNWN is developing other services such as cooking techniques, budgeting, and other activities to meet the needs of our client group relating to food insecurity. Clients can also be referred via our local crisis team or food banks who provide in extreme cases an E- code to collect free food parcels, containing fresh and essential items, we will also signpost them to other service they may find helpful such as the wardrobe foundation for clothes, Community coffee shop: An area to provide work experience for our volunteers and a setting to encourage social interaction, informal activities, more formal support group activities, etc. Training: Our volunteers are our best resource, the benefit they gain from volunteering, is vital to our community the impact this has on our beneficiary to gain skills, provides a sense of purpose, and gives an opportunity to practice and develop social skills.

The overall aim of Poole Community Exchange is to meet the needs of people who are socially excluded and disadvantaged in society by offering facilities and services, including advice and signposting to specialist help, which will help them integrate into society and thrive, not just survive. We operate a unique ‘exchange’ model which comes from our belief that everyone has needs and everyone has something to offer. Our ‘strapline is “Take what you need: Give what you can”. Whether people need food, a warm space or somewhere they are accepted and whether people give time, skills, money or food supplies, we believe that everyone benefits by involvement. We have two core projects: • Poole Pantry, which is a membership-based community pantry. • The Community Living Room, which is a warm welcoming space with refreshments and leisure activities. WiFi and recharging points are available. We are a satellite for Poole Food Bank, providing emergency food parcels. Poole Pantry is for anyone struggling make ends meet, to help them eat a balanced and nutritional diet. Members can shop weekly for 10 items or less from a range of food including chilled, fresh and frozen as well as tins etc. We ask for a suggested donation of £5 towards our costs. The Community Living Room is open to all. We offer a range of hot drinks and cake as well as a healthy, hot 2 course lunch. We ask for a suggested donation with a reduction for pantry members. People struggling with money can eat for free. Current activities include games, colouring, Knit and Natter, an art group and Tai Chi. Gardening is also available. We ask people to donate what they can afford to help cover costs. The volunteer chef who cooks the lunches also provides lessons for people who lack skills or confidence, or who want to gain additional skills to help with employment and self-employment. We also offer additional support services including education and training and advice and guidance though various partners including Citizens Advice Bureau Urban Advice Vehicle, Chaplains from the Borough of Poole Chaplaincy Team, Tricuro COAST, SMILE, WISEability and others.