ALDI BARNSLEY - ROYSTON

We are supporting vulnerable single parent households all over the UK with surplus food, care hampers and gas and electric top ups. This page is for our support team in Yorkshire

Four and a half years ago on Saturday 29th January 2022 we opened Chapelgreen Community Hub Community Fridge in High Green, Sheffield. Our membership is free and our members continue to grow on a weekly basis every Saturday morning between 11am to 12.30pm. Chapelgreen Community Hub Community Fridge is a community led initiative run by volunteers. We work with local food suppliers (such as Co-op, Aldi, Lidl and M&S) to use food that the stores cannot sell at the end of the day. This food is then offered to all members of Chapelgreen Community Hub Community Fridge to avoid food wastage and reduce the amount of food being sent to landfill on a weekly basis. In the first two weeks of opening we saved over 150kg of food from going to landfill. At the present time, with our members support, on average we prevent one ton of food going to landfill weekly. This food is perfectly good to eat and members can freely select from a range of fresh fruit & vegetables, store cupboard essentials, chilled and frozen food as much food has they need. We continually are. looking forward to working with new retailers to secure more food donations for our Community Fridge, so that we can continue to meet local community need. Chapelgreen Community Hub Community Fridge will accept food donations from the local community. We will welcome donations of unopened, packaged foods within their use by date and raw fruit or vegetables, which will then be available to anyone in the community to take. As well as reducing food waste, the group will use the fridge to strengthen community bonds, e.g. to promote the benefits of the sharing economy and raise awareness and understanding of eco and sustainable activities we can adopt in our daily routines for the greater benefit of the planet In addition to collecting food, now we are fully established, we have been able to develop activities which raise the families awareness and understanding about how they can develop sustainable activities and routines into their home lives. We hold food demonstrations and workshops to share information on cooking healthy family meals using food from our Fridge, slow cookers and air fryers. This has led to the implementation of our Slow Cooker and Air Fryer Lending Library to aid families living within food and fuel poverty. Our volunteers and members have been encouraged and supported to undertake Level 2. Food Hygiene and Allergen Awareness. We have changed our awareness and sustainability of clothes and are developing a sewing class to update old clothes to extend wearability, instead of sending another resource to landfill Chapelgreen Community Hub Community Fridge aims to continue to implement and support all our members needs.

We provide care at home for those with dementia and other needs. But, we also operate a community cafe with a Good Food Pantry. We work with Barnsley Council on the Household Support Grant and we plan to open a second cafe at Phoenix Park. Both cafes will be dementia safe.